Characters / Hell's Kitchen - Seasons 8 to 10

Main: Hell's Kitchen

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Season 8

Nona Sivley

"Veal, veal, veal, veal! It's totally veal!"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Was nominated twice during the middle of the competition and had some shaky services in the latter half of the season, but emerged as the best of the group towards the end thanks to her strong palate and decent leadership skills.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Played straight with her Signature Dish, which was fried chicken with undercooked asparagus. The secret to her chicken was that she put all seasonings in first; unfortunately, honey was one of them. Ramsay was not impressed. Completely averted from that point onward though, as her palate ultimately won him over by the end.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments of this. The earliest example was her reaction to Emily and her boobs.
• Formerly Fat: Easily the largest person to have won Hell's Kitchen, and looked much the same when she made a guest appearance early in Season 9, but when she returned again in Season 11 she had lost a significant amount of weight.
• Genre Blind: Following the third service, she tried to shield Melissa from elimination by persuading the other women to nominate one person (Emily) based on the service, and one person (Sabrina) based on the pre-service prep work, despite the fact that Ramsay almost never takes prep into consideration when eliminating people, and Sabrina hadn't even been in the kitchen (which a baffled Ramsay himself pointed out when Sabrina was nominated). In the end though, it didn't matter much because Emily had been far worse than either Melissa or Sabrina... and Raj in turn had been so spectacularly awful that Ramsay booted him out despite the Blue Team winning that night.
• Never My Fault: For the most part she averted this trope, but in the "Hell's Kitchen 100th service" she tried blaming Gail for the fact that she got caught trying to recycle a risotto that had been made for the previous table. While Gail technically did tell Nona that she could re-use the risotto, Nona was seriously Tempting Fate by trying to pull something that Vinny had been royally chewed out for attempting in the previous episode, and should really have asked Sous Chef Andi rather than Gail.
• Running Gag: She often attempted to integrate Southern cuisine into fine dining. With the results falling flat (her signature dish, her amuse bouche, her attempt to put chicken and waffles on the Season 11 menu).

Placement: Winner

Nona's Winner Comment - "My door opened! It opened! This is nuts! I fought, I fought, and I fought, and this is just amazing. I'm so thankful. This was a huge sacrifice. Missing my son's first birthday, missing his first steps, it's absolutely worth it to make his life better."

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "When Hell's Kitchen first started, I used to say, "No, no, no" to Nona. After every service, she improved dramatically, and I was soon saying "Yes, yes, yes". She has a phenomenal palate and a real passion for cooking. Soon, all of America will be saying "yes" with me when they see her excel as the head chef of LA Market."

Russell Kook II

"If you talked to me like you talked to me before about that salmon, I would have slapped the shit out of you! If you ever think you can cop an attitude like that with me, best believe you're gonna catch one to the side of your fucking head!"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Madison, WI

• Achilles' Heel: Was a good chef, but his personality was so volatile that it was hard to work with him. By the finale, half of his team was unhappy about helping him, especially Vinny. But the tipping point was his overly aggressive leadership, almost getting into a physical altercation with Rob which likely led to his defeat.
• Be Careful What You Say: Irritated by Vinny's lack of enthusiasm to work under him during the finale, Russell dares him to leave the kitchen and join Nona's team, if he doesn't get his act straight. Vinny almost follows through with the challenge, until Russell realizes how screwed he is if he's missing one chef and begs him to come back.
• The Bully: Why he was so hated. He frequently started drama with the other contestants.
• Didn't Think This Through: When accused by Vinny of throwing him under the bus the night of his elimination, Russell told him to either get over it or leave. Vinny nearly walked out on Russell, and Russell realized that having three chefs before service would spell disaster for him, and he convinced him to stay.
• Fatal Flaw: His attitude. Russell was undoubtably a strong chef and could lead, but his horrible and standoffish attitude often overshadowed his skill. It was to the extent that even when Russell was making decent leadership moves in the finale, it was all for nothing as everyone, save for Sabrina and Jillian, didn't want to help him win.
• Foreshadowing: During one episode, Russell would overhear Vinny and Trev talking about his anger, and that there was going to be day he was going to angry to the extent it would cost him. Come the finale, Russell would get into arguments with nearly his entire team, even nearly getting into a physical confrontation with Rob, and it would ultimately cost him the season despite being the blue team's most consistently strong chef.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Almost nobody wanted to be on his team in the finale (except Sabrina, who hated Nona, and Jillian, who was best friends with Nona but was flattered enough to be Russell's first pick).
  Vinny: (picked by Russell) Now I'm gonna have to help that piece of shit win.
  Trev: (picked by Nona) I wanna help Nona win. I'm glad I got a chance to knock Mr. Cocky to the floor.
• Graceful Loser: While he notoriously averted this trope after losing to Nona in the finale, he did actually play it straight after finishing last by a huge margin in the second Black Jacket challenge, admitting that his grilled octopus dish was a gamble that didn't pay off, and being the only contestant who congratulated Gail for her win instead of snarking at her about it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Had one worse than Chef Ramsay. Threatened violence when he got upset at times.
• Hated by All: No one liked him due to his utterly volatile attitude and being prone to making threats of violence. It should say something that not one chef was happy to be on his team in the finale (except for Sabrina, whose happiness was more due to her not being on Nona's team, and likely also because she and Russell were only on the same team for the first black jacket service, meaning they never developed any real dislike for each other) and those on Nona's team wanted to ensure her victory just so that Russell would lose.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Russell throughout the season was confident that he would win due to his strong skills, despite his arrogance and general bullying nature overshadowing his skills. Come the finale, almost no one on his team wanted to work with him, with Rob nearly getting into a physical confrontation with him. That would essentially cost him the competition.
• Jerkass: He was easily the biggest jerk of the season. He was very disrespectful to the other contestants, often bullying them; especially later on where he would even threaten physical violence towards them.
• Never My Fault: He did not take losing the Budget challenge well, saying that he was being punished for the mistakes of the Blue Team...despite the fact that Russell tied with Rob and Boris, and his dish even had undercooked potatoes.
• Old Shame: Has gone on record stating he regretted his reaction to being the runner-up, saying it was unprofessional.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When Russell returned in a later season as part of a team of past runners-up to compete against a team of black jacket contestants in dinner service, season 5 runner-up Paula brought up his sore loser reaction.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Was very helpful to Jillian on the fish station when she was lost. Part of it was probably to help himself win, but he was still pretty nice about it.
  • After winning the first Black Jacket challenge, he was told that he could bring any one of the contestants with him on his reward trip, and he chose Gail for coming second place, which Ramsay called honorable. Though that may have been because he didn't have any friends, and thus had to go with that reason because there were no other options available, it was still honorable nonetheless.
• The Scapegoat: Vinny was very angry at him in the finale, believing that he pulled a dirty trick by nominating him for elimination. But in reality, Vinny had indeed been slipping and was the worst performer on the Blue Team that night.
• Sore Loser: Every runner-up takes their loss like a champ. Even when they initially felt disappointed about coming in second, they feel proud of what they accomplished and warmly congratulate the winner. Russell is the only one to have averted the Graceful Loser trope. He blamed his team for his loss and pledged to blackball them. That said, he never seemed to hold any anger towards Nona. He did apologize to everyone on social media for his words shortly after the finale aired.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Russell's attitude got gradually worse as the season progressed, losing his temper more easily and spouting verbal abuse to his teammates.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the Runner-Ups service in Season 10, Russell clearly made an effort to improve himself. This is best shown when Paula called him out for calling Bonnie sweetheart, and instead of getting defensive, he restrained himself and didn't do it again.
• What Were You Thinking?: In the last service, he tried to send two tables out at the same time. Naturally, both tables were sent back for being undercooked and were one of the factors that caused him to lose to Nona.

Placement: 2nd

Russell's Runner-Up Comment - "I'm pissed. I'm not happy at all. I chose the team that I wanted, and I thought they would help me win, and in fact, they helped me lose, so, you know, thanks a lot, guys. You will never get a job in any city I work. I'm gonna definitely blackball you guys, because you guys fucked me so royally tonight."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Jillian Flathers

"Gandhi didn't even wear flip flops! He lived in the jungle! I don't even think the dude had shoes!"'

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Pagosa Springs, CO

• The Ace: Notably, she was the only one of the Black Jackets to not be nominated at any point, but a poor performance at the pass led to her elimination.
• Achilles' Heel: Unfortunately, she proved a little weak when it came to running the pass in the penultimate service, and it ultimately cost her a place in the final.
• Beginner's Luck: For the fusion challenge, she stated that she never did fusion before. In fact, she rarely cooked anything but American style food. When choosing her ingredients, she was practically clueless on what she was working with. Amazingly though, her dish was the only one that was received positively and got a landslide victory.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: Inverted. Her eyebrows are very noticeably thin.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Has a high-pitched voice you'll either find cute or annoying.
• Fiery Redhead: If dyed hair counts. She's one tough cookie. In her own words; "I'll keep on working until I die."
• Genius Ditz: Was a very competent chef, even managing to get into the top 3, but was a bit ditzy as well.
  Jillian: (regarding Michelin star chefs) I thought Michelin was a tire.^note Technically correct, as Michelin is a tire manufacturer which also produces the acclaimed Michelin Tour Guides.
• Older Than They Look: You wouldn't expect such a small girl speaking Totally Radical voice to be 28 at the time of this season, much less be a mom of two kids almost in their preteens.
• Only Friend: Started off as this for Sabrina in the beginning. But after Sabrina started to mature, she got along with the rest of the group. Except for Trev.
• Those Two Girls: With Sabrina at first.
• Tiny Tyrannical Girl: At the pass, almost becoming a Distaff Counterpart of Ramsay himself.
• Totally Radical: Prone to saying "man" or "dude" quite a lot.

Placement: 3rd

Jillian's Elimination Comment - "I never thought I would make it this far. This experience proved to me that I have what it takes to be a chef. I got great comments from some world-class chefs. I'm the only person that never got put up for elimination in Hell's Kitchen, and that says a lot. It's hard, but I did the best I could. I'm not gonna give up. I know I made my kids proud, and I know this isn't the end for me, like, honestly, I don't feel like I deserve to be standing here. I feel like I should be in the final two, but..."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Jillian didn't let her lack of fine dining experience get in the way. She made it this far because of her passion and determination. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough to get her into the final."

Trevor "Trev" McGrath

Also Season 18 (Rookies VS Veterans)

"Go home and stuff yourself with twinkies 'til ya have a fucking heart attack on your recliner!"

Occupation: Line Cook & Bartender

Age: 30

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• All of the Other Reindeer: He never really got much respect while on the Red Team, and this continued all the way throughout his entire time in the competition. In fact it was so bad that the Red Team outright wanted to vote out Trev before the Black Jackets as opposed to previous common nominee Sabrina.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Desperately tried to be this for Raj for a while. It doesn't work, culminating in Trev losing his shit at Raj during a punishment.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the best examples in the show's history.
  Chef Ramsay: Wow. Four women and four votes for Trev.
  Trev: Never been a ladies' man.
• Determinator: Survived several nominations, including when Gail, Jillian, Nona, and Sabrina all nominated him to avoid him getting a black jacket. This backfired, as Trev was given the first black jacket. Ramsay praised him for this, saying Trev made it further than he thought he would.
  Ramsay: You fought against all odds, and your determination never wavered. Good job, I really mean that.
• Glass Cannon: While Trev could put in some really good performances, if he messed up it was more often than not extremely noticeable.
• Group Hug: Jokingly invited the girls to hug him and the other Blue Team members while covered in trash. The girls wisely declined this.
• Has Two Thumbs and...: Prone to doing this in the confessionals.
• Hypocritical Humor: When he came back to compete in a returning team in Season 9, he talked about how he developed as a chef. That he learned to be cool, calm and collected. This is all intertwined with footage of him moving overly quickly in the kitchen and sending up a plate before the rest of the order was ready.
• No-Respect Guy: Felt he was this during the pass after the others didn't respond to a ticket order.
• One-Man Army: Finished a dinner service by himself after the rest of his team got kicked out. This was after he had just returned to the blue team and nobody wanted to see him back.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Trevor, but he went by Trev during the show. That didn't stop Ramsay from calling him Trevor on occasion.
• Pet the Dog: After Russell rudely snaps at the prom committee out of frustration for losing the challenge, Trev directs him away from the situation and had a much more reasonable attitude with following their directions. To him, it was totally unacceptable for Russell to backtalk them like that.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Delivered an EPIC one to Raj, part of which is showcased above.
• The Rival: To Sabrina, due to him disliking her immature attitude.
• Sanity Ball: Held this when the blue team dealt with the prom committee. He was the only one who acted civilized with them and managed to smooth over Russell's argument with them.
• Smoky Voice: He has a noticeably rough voice that makes him sound like he has a sore throat. Probably due to smoking.
• Staring Down Cthulhu: After Russell threatened physical violence on him, Trev's only response was a short, unflinching "ok".
• Took a Level in Badass: He bounced back after switching over to blue again and managed to finish the next service all by himself.
  • Only to start slipping up after making it to the black team, barely surviving elimination over Sabrina and Gail.

Placement: 4th

Trev's Elimination Comment - "I'm feeling, you know, disappointed. I really overcame a lot at Hell's Kitchen. I took more shit from the other contestants than I did from Chef Ramsay. I was struggling with egos, with attitude, up against executive chefs. I stood on my own two feet in this kitchen. I really, really tried to win this thing, but ultimately, heart and determination did not win out over experience. So fuck 'em."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Abigail "Gail" Novenario

"That chicken is sexy!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Wantagh, NY

• Achilles' Heel: The fish station was this for her, especially during her last 3 services.
• Epic Fail: Scoring zero in the sushi challenge, including missing a piece of tuna nigiri, and serving unacceptable pasta seven consecutive times in a service.
• Generic Girl: Gail was decently competent and didn't get into as much drama as her teammates, so she didn't really stand out from them.
• Graceful Loser: Took her loss well and admits to needing more experience to go further.
• Nice Girl: Is generally amiable towards her group and knows when to admit fault whenever she messes up in the kitchen.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Abigail, but she went by Gail during the show.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: When she won the 80 Portions Food Truck challenge and got a makeover as a reward.
• Token Minority: Until Season 20 (Young Guns), the only Asian contestant to have been given a black jacket.
• Took a Level in Badass: Recovered in the finale, being a key member of Nona's team.

Placement: 5th

Gail's Elimination Comment - "I wish I could've stayed longer, but my time was up. I thought I was a strong cook before I came to Hell's Kitchen, but now, after leaving Hell's Kitchen, I think I realized that I have a few things to work on. I did disappoint myself, but there are so many highlights. Winning the challenges and getting to go on the rewards, they totally outweigh all the lowlights. I leave here with great memories, new friends, fantastic clothes, and a great haircut."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Gail's performance in Hell's Kitchen was up and down, up and down, and up and down. Roller coasters are great for amusement parks, not kitchens."

Sabrina Brimhall

"You ain't done better than me at all! AT ALL!"

Occupation: Prep Chef

Age: 22

Hometown: San Diego, CA

• Achilles' Heel: Her immaturity, which had caught up to her by the time of her elimination, as noted by Ramsay himself.
• Arch-Enemy: Though she had rivalries with Nona and Trev, her most vicious rivalry was with Melissa. Sabrina thought Melissa was a heavily overrated cook, and that the other women were constantly trying to throw her under the bus to keep Melissa in the competition, while Melissa thought Sabrina was an immature brat who only seemed to perform well via making lucky guesses on her cooking times. Both women's viewpoints of the other were correct to some degree.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Was the youngest contestant of the season, at 22. Mentally, too.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Describes herself as this.
• Blatant Lies: When Chef Ramsay asked her on the garnish station where the gnocchi was, she claimed the meat station was cooking it.
  Trev: Why the fuck would I have it? It's a garnish. I'm cooking the meat.
• Book Dumb: Presented a sophisticated dish in the signature dish challenge, Chef Ramsay asked her if she took it from a book, but she answered no. In the following confession cam, she admitted to not read very often.
  Ramsay: Sabrina, you have been standing in front of me for so fucking long, you've molded my carpet.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She had a habit of trying to throw any chef she could under the bus to stay in the competition. This eventually caught up with her, resulting in her elimination.
• Determinator: A determined chef who survived six nominations and still made it to black jackets, partly due to how passionately she defended herself.
  Ramsay: You've got a big heart, you work exceptionally hard. But you have a lot of growing up to do, inside the kitchen, and outside. Thank you for your commitment.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Chef Ludo won her heart in episode 11's challenge.
• Fatal Flaw: Her immaturity. While Sabrina could pull off a good service every once in a while, what caused her to quickly lose respect was her immature attitude. While she did get it under control enough to make it to the black jackets, she reverts to her immature stage trying to throw Gail under the bus. It's enough to have Ramsay eliminate her, and tell her that she can be a good chef if she just loses the attitude.
• Jerk Ass Has A Point: While she was unpleasant to deal with, she was right that Melissa was not a good cook at all.
  • Not only that, she was completely justified in being upset over the reason for her nomination in the third episode. Granted she didn't help much with prep, but she didn't mess up in service.
• Manipulative Bitch: She had a really bad habit of trying to throw other chefs under the bus for ludicrous reasons, with one example involving her suggesting Nona should be up because she snores.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Possibly. Sabrina had a bad habit of hounding other chefs with inane, common-sense questions. However, she seemed to only do this to chefs she actively disliked, and she didn't struggle with these same small details when she didn't have a target, so it's possible she was deliberately being a hassle to get under their skin.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: A wangsta with the best of them. Or at least she tried to be.
• Press Start to Game Over: Managed to piss off Chef Ramsay during the Signature Dish challenge by yawning before she even presented her dish. Thankfully for her, when he did taste her dish, he actually liked it.
• The Rival: To Nona, Melissa, and Trev. Despite this, she surprisingly defended Trev on her last night, saying Gail should be eliminated, although this was more likely to try and save herself.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: In service, she would have her hair tied up and wear thick glasses. Outside of service, she would let her hair down and remove the glasses, and she looked much prettier. Even Chef Ramsay commented on it when she was brought back with the others to help the finalists:
  Ramsay: Is that hair there, is that real?
  Sabrina: This is all me, chef, come here!
  Ramsay: Come here? I think I'll stay right here!
  (Cue everyone starting to laugh)
• Spear Counterpart: To Season 10's Brian. Both were rather hit or miss chefs who made it pretty far into the competition despite having immaturity problems. Bonus point to Ramsay saying they could be good chefs if they lost the attitude. Where they differ however is that Sabrina's immaturity was incredibly volatile and only served to alienate herself from her team, while Brian's attitude was more lighthearted and didn't alienate himself, but he had a bad habit of bringing it into service.
• They Just Dont Get It: Every time Sabrina was sent up, she would immediately try throwing another chef under the bus or trying to use her inexperience as an excuse, and it was something Ramsay quickly noticed. Upon her 7th nomination, she tried to throw Gail under the bus, and it cost her in the end.
• Took a Level in Badass: From the 7th service on, she matured a lot, working more cohesively with her team and impressing Ramsay enough to advance to the black jackets.
• Took a Level in Kindness: While "kindness" is stretching it a bit, she improves her attitude considerably after Melissa's elimination, even if she's still a bit manipulative.

Placement: 6th

Sabrina's Elimination Comment - "I came here in Hell's Kitchen not knowing anything about how a brigade works. Being 22, I am a bit immature, there's a lot I have to learn about life, but I'm leaving Hell's Kitchen as a fighter. I've fought from day one, I fought with Chef Ramsay, I fought with everybody. I gave it everything that I had. This experience has definitely changed my life forever. I'm definitely gonna continue on this path, wherever it takes me. Chef Ramsay hasn't seen the last of me."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Sabrina was quite dramatic in her final plea, but I'm not looking for a drama queen. I'm looking for a head chef."

Vincenzo "Vinny" Accardi

"Bro, you're 50 years old and you couldn't pick parsley!"

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 29

Hometown: Queens, NY

• Brooklyn Rage: A non-violent example thankfully, but he embodies this to a T.
• Distinction Without a Difference: In a confessional after Raj admonishes him for telling the customers to not order sides, Vinny claims he did not say that; he "highly recommended it".
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: Despite his incredibly dumb idea of telling people not to order sides while working as a waiter getting him nomination, Vinny was one of the stronger members of the blue team. From the seventh episode onward however, he began to tank hard.
• Honor Before Reason: He said that as much as he didn't like Russell, he would not sabotage him in the finale. Granted he made a few mistakes, but they didn't seem intentional.
• The Load: Gradually became this as the season progressed. Despite his early standouts, he started to fall apart around the half-way point of the season, making mistake after mistake.
• Mr. Fanservice: He sure thought of himself as such:
  Jillian: Make us something delicious!
  Vinny: I'm delicious!
• Only Friend: He seemed to be this to Trev, as the two bonded over their mutual dislike for Russell.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Vincenzo, but he went by Vinny during the show.
• Rambunctious Italian: Downplayed. He doesn't raise his voice that often, but he only will when particularly mad, and it's usually reserved for Raj.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Very nearly pulled this when he got fed up with Russell's attitude in the finale, and only stayed because Russell begged him to.
• Shaped Like Itself: "People from Queens are very... people from Queens."
• Tempting Fate: During a punishment, he predicted that Rob would tear his jumpsuit. Three guesses on what happened next.
• This Is Gonna Suck: He was not happy when Russell selected him to compete on his team in the finale. To be fair though, aside from Sabrina nobody else envied that position either.
• Too Clever by Half: A competent and consistent chef, but he had an arrogant streak and a tendency to cut corners and come up with "nifty ideas" to smooth out his team's services, leading straight into What Were You Thinking? territory.
• What Were You Thinking?: In the second service, Vinny played maître d' in the dining room. Noting that Raj was on garnish, he suggested to a table that they should not order sides. When main maître d' James hears this, he reports Vinny to Ramsay, who is furious for Vinny overstepping his job and subsequently kicks him out of the service.
• The Worf Effect: One of the strongest members of the Blue Team early on, but his skills declined sharply from the seventh service onward.

Placement: 7th

Vinny's Elimination Comment - "I lost. I had my shot right in front of my face, and I blew it. I came here with the intention of winning, and I failed. This is the worst night of my life. Chef Ramsay, I really wanted that black jacket so badly, you have no idea."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "When the competition first started, I thought Vinny was the one to beat. But after tonight's dismal performance, he's now the one to go home."

Robert "Rob" McCue

"You can't DO that to a fat guy, Chef!"

Occupation: Law Firm Chef

Age: 36

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

• Epic Fail: Scored 0 in the blind taste test, much to the shock of the other chefs.
  Ramsay: He fucking eats enough!
• The Generic Guy: Amongst the other blue team members, he didn't really stand out.
• It's All About Me: He refused to help Curtis with the sushi, claiming that it wasn't his problem.
• Jerkass to One: For the most part, Rob was a pretty nice guy who tried to support his teammates, but he seemed to have it out for Curtis. During the second service, despite multiple opportunities to save Curtis while he was struggling on sushi, he straight up refused to slide over and help, and would rather enjoy watching him sink.
• Kick the Dog: During the second service, despite noticing that Curtis got the kitchen off to a bad start with the sushi, and stated that he could slide over and help, but refused to do so, thinking it's not his own problem, and would let Curtis sink, which contributed to Curtis's elimination.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the second service, Rob would refuse to help Curtis with the sushi, stating he would let him sink, which eventually contributed to Curtis's elimination. In the paramedic challenge, no one would come to help out Rob on the fruit salads, which eventually resulted in Rob messing up on them.
• The Load: Aside from winning a challenge and being featured in Bon Appétit magazine, he was never a standout performer, with Ramsay telling him his elimination was long overdue.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Robert, but he went by Rob during the show.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Played straight with his team, hating Russell for his ego and refusing to help out the rest of his team on multiple occasions and preferring to watch them drown. Rob himself attempted to avert this, constantly working with others such as Boris and trying to prevent others from sinking.
• Tempting Fate: Before his turn in the signature dish challenge, he expressed a lot of confidence in his dish, going as far to brag that Ramsay might ask him the recipe for it. When it was actually presented, Ramsay didn't even take a bite before pointing out several flaws about it, like how the lamb was undercooked. He ended up trashing the dish and awarding the point to the women.

Placement: 8th

Rob's Elimination Comment - "I had a one-in-seven shot at this point to win the prize, and I'm just pissed I didn't make it further. It's unfortunate because I think the wrong guy went home tonight, but I guess everybody says that."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "If the size of one's waist corresponds to the size of one's talent, then Rob would be a fantastic chef. Instead, he just wears gigantic pants."

Boris Poleschuk

"ROLL THE FUCKING PIZZA DOUGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Occupation: Catering Chef

Age: 38

Hometown: Manalapan, NJ

• Beware the Nice Ones: Widely acknowledged as one of the nicest guys from this season, even if he was shaky in the kitchen, so you can only imagine how bad Raj was to make him call Raj "a fucking waste of life" and throw stuff at him.
• Bullying a Dragon: Thought it would be a good idea to mock Ramsay's Catchphrase "It's raw!"... within earshot of the man... in the middle of service. Gordon tore him a new asshole for that one.
• Crazy Enough to Work: In the Roulette Challenge, he chose miso as an ingredient to use, which his teammates expressed a lot of worry about using. Fortunately, Ramsay praised how the miso turned out, even though the dish had its own flaws.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Boris generally did well in all the challenges he took part in, with only one or two exceptions, typically putting out strong performances and excellent dishes in that area, but makes constant mistakes when it comes to service, being one of the weakest members of the blue team service wise.
• Deadpan Snarker: He had his fair share of this, mainly when it came to Raj.
• Graceful Loser: Took his elimination very well. Ramsay praised him for his big heart, and on his way out, he wished good luck to the other chefs, leaving to friendly waves from the red team and respect from his teammates.
  Sabrina: Bye Boris, I love you!
• Identical Stranger: Bears a resemblance to Nino from Kitchen Nightmares.
• The Load: After Raj left, he was the weakest chef on the blue team, making constant mistakes.
• Nice Guy: He may not have been a great chef, but he's still widely regarded as the friendliest and most likable chef of this season, helping Raj calm down after his argument with Trev.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Tells Raj "Please, don't do that." when he starts eating food in the middle of the third service.
• Picked Last: Nona got him as the last pick, but was at least happy to have him over Rob and especially Sabrina. Boris was just as happy as any of the other players on Nona's team.
• What Were You Thinking?: Mimicked chef Ramsay in the opening service by repeating his shouts of 'It's raw!' in a pantomime British-Scottish accent. Within earshot of the man himself, naturally. His teammates (and Boris himself, via confession cam) responded with this stock phrase.
  Louis: Boris, what were you thinking, buddy? You don’t mock Gordon Ramsay.
  • Also started washing dishes on the dessert station, which led to Ramsay reassigning him to dishwasher backstage; he was kicked out of the service altogether when Louis brought up raw chicken.

Placement: 9th

Boris' Elimination Comment - "My dream was to win Hell's Kitchen and prove to Gordon Ramsay that I can do it, but it was actually a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. He's a tough son of a bitch, I'll tell you that, but I go home with no regrets and I leave here inspired."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Melissa Doney

"Not one of them's right?! What the fuck?! I'm sorry, what the fuck?!"

Occupation: Executive Sous Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Albany, NY

• Arch-Enemy: Sabrina definitely had it in for her, and she never passed up an opportunity to rip on Melissa's constant missteps in the kitchen; the feeling was quite mutual, with Melissa just seeing Sabrina as a vindictive brat trying to sabotage her and her teammates. Her greatest regret upon her elimination was that Sabrina had outlasted her in the competition.
• The Ditz: As seen below. She even mentions that she sometimes "goes stupid".
• Epic Fail: Before her team was even close to finishing appetizers, she decided to start on the beef filets on order and put them all in the oven. All 23 of them. For good measure, she also overcooked them all. Somehow, she managed to survive that night, but come the next night when she similarly screwed up about 7-10 pounds of scallops, it resulted in her elimination.
• Graceful Loser: She took her loss extremely well, admitting she wished she had at least knocked out Sabrina but was happy she had made the effort she did in the game.
• Informed Ability: Despite most of the other women repeatedly calling her an amazing chef and even claiming her to be the strongest member of the Red team, she messed up most of the time, and even moving her over to the Blue team did nothing to help.
• The Load: Melissa was never a very useful chef in both challenges and service, which is something that at the very least Emily managed to do.
• No Social Skills: Not to anywhere near the same extent as Raj or Sabrina, but she did have an occasional habit of talking down to Ramsay, including trying to tell him that he was wrong about the sides needed with a ticket — not backing down until he showed her the actual ticket — and even acting like he was somehow being unreasonable in criticizing her for cooking 23 filets at once.
• Out of Focus: The first few episodes did not show much of her. That said, she still messed up a lot in the early services, she just went under the radar due to Emily (and, for the brief time she was on the show, Lisa) being far worse, and Sabrina's arguments with the rest of the team.
• Rule of Three: She was eliminated on her third nomination.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Highly averted. Granted, it may have been mostly due to stress.
• Too Dumb to Live: While it wasn't what got her eliminated, she had a really bad habit of talking back to Ramsay.
• Took a Level in Badass: While her performance in the finale wasn't perfect by any means, it was still her best performance on the show by a long shot.
• What Were You Thinking?: Pretty much everyone had this reaction when Melissa made the bone-headed decision to cook twenty-three filets when the appetizers were not even finished.

Placement: 10th

Melissa's Elimination Comment - "It pisses me off that Sabrina is still in there. I don't feel that I had the chance to really show them what I can do. And I gave it- I gave it a try. It's all I can say."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Melissa had a red jacket, she had a blue jacket, and now she has no jacket at all."

Emily Kutchins

"Yeah, I'm a little bit boobalicious. Gotta give what the DNA gave me."

Occupation: Senior Home Executive Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• Crippling Overspecialization: Generally did well in all the challenges she took part in, but in the actual services she was one of the weaker members of the red team.
• Emotionless Girl: Played with, but enough so that Gordon wasn't convinced of her passion in the kitchen. She more or less admitted to being one when Gordon questioned her on this, saying she "wasn't an emotionally extroverted person", all while insisting her passion was genuine. Gordon was totally unconvinced by that response and when he asked Nona who should be sent home, they settled on Emily as neither of them felt she had the heart to win.
• Modesty Towel: Ramsay gives her his apron to wear during the signature dish contest because of her low-cut shirt. She wears it through the rest of the contest and the kitchen cleaning afterwards.
• Ms. Fanservice: While cooking her signature dish, her time was evenly split between preparing the food and keeping her boobs inside her very low-cut shirt.

Placement: 11th

Emily's Elimination Comment - "I'm not ready to go home, but if Chef Ramsay can't see my skill, it's his loss. He can go yell at somebody else tomorrow."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Like everyone in Hell's Kitchen, Emily started at the bottom. Unfortunately, she stayed there."

Louis Repucci

"The fact that Raj is 49 and still alive, and not in a jail or an asylum is a goddamn miracle."

Occupation: Children's Camp Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Diamond Bar, CA

• Berserk Button: Being talked down to in any way. So you can probably guess how he reacted when Raj called him a "kid" when he was trying to have an intelligent discussion on why the men kept screwing up.
• Deadpan Snarker: Read Greek Chorus.
• Expy: He had quite a few similarities to Season 6's Jim, both being low-placing chefs (although Jim made it a bit higher), who weren't really that good in the kitchen, yet provided some pretty funny one-liners with their snarky quips.
• The Generic Guy: Apart from his aforementioned Berserk Button, he didn't really stand out much.
• Graceful Loser: While conceding that it'd be tough to face the kids at camp after being eliminated, he was happy to call his time a learning experience, saying that getting your butt kicked is the only way people grow.
• Greek Chorus: A one-man example; he would frequently use the confession cam to provide humorous commentary and analysis on events.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: With Louis being perhaps the only chef on the blue team who didn't do anything ridiculously stupid in his first few episodes or have a bad attitude, on top of being the closest thing to a leader on the extremely argument prone blue team, he seemed like a sleeper pick to win. Unfortunately for him, he was easily one of the weakest chefs on the team, despite whatever qualities he had. After Raj was eliminated, Louis would quickly become the team's weakest member, and after tanking the grill station, he would be gone later that night.
• Kick the Dog: Mockingly thanked Antonia after the signature dish challenge, calling her the "most valuable member of the blue team" when her disastrous gumbo dish cost the women the win.
• Laser-Guided Karma: During the Ravioli challenge, while receiving help from Trev, he called Trev a tool to be used and not a chef. His ravioli dish was declared to be one of the worst Ramsay ever had, and he would also be eliminated that night.
• The Leader: For all of Louis's faults, he was the closest chef the incredibly uncooperative blue team had to a leader.
• The Load: Louis wasn't a very useful teammate. His signature dish flopped with Ramsay, he never really had any stand-out moments, and he tanked his team when he was working the grill station on the night he was finally eliminated. He did at least show some leadership qualities by calling a team meeting after the men's ejection from the second service, only for Raj to immediately derail the meeting by calling the other men "kids", setting off Louis' Berserk Button.
• Only Sane Man: Referring to him coming off as fairly generic, he never really made any ridiculously dumb mistakes like Raj or Vinny or even had a confrontational personality.
• This Is Gonna Suck: In episode 3, when Raj used up the blue team's entire supply of the night's Dover sole special:
  Louis: Oh man, this is gonna be REAL ugly...

Placement: 12th

Louis' Elimination Comment - "It's gonna be tough going back to camp and having to face my kids, but honestly, I can say that I represented myself well. Hell's Kitchen definitely kicked my butt, but that's good for people, and that's the only way we grow."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Louis the camp cook dreamed of fine dining, but the only thing I would trust him with is toasting a marshmallow. Kumbaya, my friend!"

Ranjit "Raj" Brandston

"I'm in the snake pit, and I'm the mongoose and the mongoose is trying to fight the cobra..."

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 49

Hometown: Queens, NY

• Acrofatic: Despite his large size, Raj could actually throw a pretty good spinning back kick.
• Angrish: Raj did this at one point when Vinny told the customers not to order side dishes, although it was from confusion instead of anger.
• Beginner's Luck: About the only thing that went even vaguely right for him on the show was producing a signature dish that Ramsay thought actually tasted pretty good. Unfortunately for Raj, it looked WAY worse than it tasted ^note  it was a vegetable "pancake" that shocked Ramsay the minute it was revealed, and spilled a bit of grease at that, too and so lost out to Sabrina's dish.
• Big Fun: Managed to entertain the rest of the blue team with his drunken karate moves during their first reward. After that though...
• Big "SHUT UP!": Gave a vicious one to Trev who was dealing one helluva "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him while preparing for service. The warning didn't stick, though, as he was soon after eliminated.
• Chewing the Scenery: Look at Large Ham below.
• Cloudcuckoolander: SOOOOOOOOOOOO much. He frequently acted strangely during his stay and was very deluded as well.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Probably the kindest possible explanation of his performance on the show. Prior to being on the show, he had mostly worked as a personal chef, which is likely why he managed to come up with a decent-tasting (if poorly presented) signature dish and did passably well in the sushi challenge (only messing up by forgetting to add wasabi, which several of the other men also did), but failed so spectacularly as part of a brigade.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "Trevor, he's really not a very nice person, and he's also being very mean."
• Dumbass Has a Point: Raj did have a fair point that Vinny had no authority to tell the diners not to order sides, simply because he was working on that station.
• Epic Fail: It takes a special sort of contestant on this show to be sent home on a night when your team wins. It had happened twice before, but unlike in the cases of Carol and Salvatore, it happened very early in the competition, and Raj's elimination was seen as a bigger reward for the blue team than any member of the red team being eliminated.
• Fat Comic Relief: He provided some good comic relief early in the season, due to his incompetence and lack of social awareness.
  • His poor cooking and ridiculous antics along with his high pitched voice make it seem like Raj is what you would've gotten if Curly Howard of The Three Stooges was a contestant on the show.
• Fat Idiot: A strong contender for the most utterly clueless contestant ever to appear on the show. There have certainly been less talented cooks, even in Season 8, but few have managed to combine his utter lack of both cooking talent and social skills.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: To the point his own team expressed their collective relief when he was eliminated.
• Graceful Loser: For all his faults, Raj certainly took his elimination very well, calling his time on Hell's Kitchen a "great experience" and stating that he was very glad to have done it.
• Hidden Depths: While his karate antics were undoubtedly goofy, at one point he exclaims "kanku!" and makes a moon-shape with his hands; he is actually performing Kanku-Dai, which is an advanced kata that is often taught at brown or black belt level. The fact that he knows what Kanku-Dai is certainly infers he knows more about karate than his silly behavior implies initially. Whether he actually is an advanced karate practitioner, or just happens to know this kata, however, is anyone's guess.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: He claims to have been cooking for longer than Chef Ramsay himself....Yet a whole lifetime of experience never materialized itself in Ramsay's kitchen. Ramsay lampshaded this fact the first time he was nominated for elimination, and by the time he finally did eliminate him he told him flat out he was out of his league.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Says he tries to drink "only once a week"; he eagerly gulped down each and every glass in one swig though during the wine-tasting tour won by the blue team, which baffled even Ramsay.
• Kaizo Trap: He ended up being eliminated while he was on the winning team due how terrible he was.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He thinks of himself as a supreme chef and believes that his way is the only right way, but he was one of the worst contestants in history.
• Large Ham: To quote:
  Raj: My teammates are shitting their pants, knowing that Raj is out to destroy them. I'M HERE TO STAY, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!!!! 'CAUSE I AM THE BEST! AGH!!! (Falls forward and hits the Confession Cam)
• The Load: To the point where his team saw his elimination as a reward. While he just avoided being the worst performer on the blue team by virtue of a couple of halfway decent challenge performances (Curtis couldn't even manage that), he not only consistently screwed up during service, but constantly caused arguments with his team-mates.
• Never My Fault: Despite everyone having some legitimate reasons to criticize him, he just saw them all as being mean and thought that he did nothing wrong.
• Nice Guy: As foolish and arrogant as he was, he was never malicious about it. He has even remained in touch with Sabrina of all people after the season ended. Sadly the times he tried to be civil were overruled by his team's frustration at his incompetence.
• No Social Skills: Nearly every time he opened his mouth he pissed someone off, whether he was trying to or not. It was best exemplified when Louis called a team meeting over the men's having been ejected from both of the first two services, only for Raj to over-talk him and call the other men "kids", causing Louis to absolutely lose his shit at Raj, swiftly followed by Boris.
• Not Me This Time: When Ramsay catches wind of Vinny telling customers not to order side dishes, he lays into Raj (who was working the garnish station) before Raj confusedly shows that the sides are being readied and it comes out that Vinny made that call without even telling him assuming Raj would fuck it up. This spares him the majority of Ramsay's wrath, though he still catches some when Ramsay proceeds to lay into him for letting the garnishes stack up and then talking back when he tells him to get those out.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Ranjit, but he went by Raj during the show.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He was a Cloud Cuckoolander with moments of Butt-Monkey seasonings, so it was a complete shock to everyone when he suddenly turned violent during a fight with Trev, getting nose to nose, screaming and swearing, and having to be dragged out into the hallway by Boris to cool down.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He provided plenty of this.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: During the third episode's punishment, he accused the other men of targeting him because of his age. Which was only partially correct — they were targeting him because he constantly attempted to use his age as an excuse to condescend and claim superiority to the other men, rather than them just hating him for being older.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Raj would frequently brag about how he was the most competent chef of the season and that the victory was as good as his, ignorant of his abysmal performance during his short run.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: At the end of the Season's intro when everyone is running away, Raj is the only one outright running while everyone else is merely jogging.

Placement: 13th

Raj's Elimination Comment - "I can't believe it, it's just a shock. I didn't get along with anybody, I didn't get along with Chef Ramsay, I didn't get along with Scott, I didn't like the menu, but it was a great experience. I had a great time, and I'm really glad I did it."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "When the going gets tough in the kitchen, a chef puts his head down and cooks. All Raj wanted to do was put his head in the freezer, and that's why his stay in Hell's Kitchen was a short one."

Lewis Curtis

"It's harder than it looks. Mine looks more like a dookie roll than a sushi roll."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 26

Hometown: Beebe, AR

• Epic Fail: He absolutely tanked at the sushi station in the second service, completely derailing his team's efforts to get their appetizers out and in turn their entrees. Ramsay singled this out as the most damning mistake made that night and it cost him the game.
• Good Ol' Boy: With the possible exception of Season 9's Jonathon, probably the most stereotypically southern contestant the show's had.
• Hope Spot: Happened to him twice on the same night. After his terrible performance on the sushi station, the blue team seemed set to nominate Curtis for elimination, but he weasled out of it by talking his teammates into nominating Boris instead for pushing Trev off of his station and serving raw scallops. During the elimination ceremony, Ramsay broke regular procedure by deciding to hear from a third nominee, which cast another chance that Curtis might get eliminated. Ramsay instead called up Vinny, which gave a glimmer of hope to Curtis's situation, until Ramsay eliminated him anyway without a chance to hear his appeal.
• Kick the Dog: On the recieving end of it in the second episode from both Rob and Chef Ramsay himself. Despite being the worst performer of the sushi challenge, Ramsay for some reason put Curtis in charge of the sushi station, rather than Boris or Louis. Then, as he struggled on the station, Rob had multiple chances to slide over and help, but refused to do so thinking it wasn't his own problem. And when Curtis sent out sushi WITHOUT wasabi, Ramsay immediatly told him to f**k off, despite Curtis being adament that he tried his best. Then finally, despite Boris, Raj and Vinny being nominated, Ramsay cruely eliminated Curtis over the three of them without giving him a chance to plea his case, causing him to leave a sobbing mess.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After his awful performance on the sushi station, Curtis would manage to weasel his way out of being nominated by convincing everyone to put up resident Nice Guy Boris. However, Ramsay would see through this attempt, and eliminated Curtis without giving him a chance to hear his plea.
• Last-Name Basis: His first name is Lewis, but he went by his surname during his brief time on the show, likely to avoid similarities with Louis.
• The Load: Somehow, he actually surpassed Raj as the weakest performer on the blue team. His signature dish was heavily implied to be both the worst on the blue team and the worst one overall aside from Antonia's, then in the following episode's challenge his attempt at making sushi was a complete disaster, before he completely tanked the blue team in that episode's service, leading to his elimination.
• Manipulative Bastard: Persuaded the other men to turn on Boris in episode 2 to save himself from nomination. Ironically, he might actually have fared better had he just let the other men nominate him, since that would at least have given him the opportunity to let him plead his case to Ramsay. Instead, it helped ensure his being eliminated over not only Boris, but Raj and Vinny, both of whom had severely pissed off Ramsay for one reason or another that night.
• Manly Tears: Was tearful upon being eliminated and apologized for disappointing his kids and promising that he would make up for it.
• Two First Names: Lewis Curtis.

Placement: 14th

Curtis' Elimination Comment - "Words can't even describe how I feel right now. I mean, this experience meant so much to me, so much to my family. I'm sorry, Daddy gave it his best, (voice breaking and starts to sob) but I swear to God, I'll make it up to you..."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Curtis might have been a good ol' boy, but unfortunately, he wasn't good at cooking."

Lisa LaFranca

"What was that? I'm spent? Spent?! Are you kidding me?! I'll cook circles around you, honey! I may be 48, but believe me, you don't have a chance."

Occupation: Corporate Food Director

Age: 48

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

• Alliterative Name: Lisa LaFranca
• Berserk Button: When Sabrina calls her "spent" during her elimination appeal, the normally calm Lisa becomes visibly outraged at her implication and fires back her own insults at her.
• Beware the Nice Ones: For the most part a pretty level-headed woman, but just prior to being eliminated she chewed Sabrina out big-time for calling her "spent."
• Cool Old Lady: A lot of people admired how she handled Sabrina during elimination. YMMV on this though since that was the only cool moment she had in the brief time she was on the show. That and she was subpar in the kitchen, performing very slowly and acting confused.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Only lasted one service, and she never had the chance to redeem herself for her performance despite her determination to prove herself.

Placement: 15th

Lisa's Elimination Comment - "I honestly never would've thought I would've been the first person to go home. This competition was everything to me. Chef Ramsay should've sent Sabrina home. There's no doubt in my mind if I ever met her in a cook-off, I'd kick her ass."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "The only thing positive I can say about Lisa's performance tonight, she didn't kill anyone."

Antonia Boregman

"Every time I make my gumbo, it always gets eaten and everybody loves it. It's going to be good."

Occupation: Line Cook & Beautician

Age: 40

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• Epic Fail: One of only two chefs to date (along with Matt from Season 4) who have managed to cook a signature dish that made Chef Ramsay vomit.
• Humiliation Conga: Her dish was so bad that Ramsay ordered the other participants to take a mouthful and share in his suffering, and then gave the challenge to the Blue Team when the teams tied purely because the Red Team had Antonia's "gumbo" in it.
• Lethal Chef: Her "Mardi Gras Gumbo". Not only did it have a terrible look (Ramsay compared it to "liquid shit") but it's one of the only dishes to date (besides Season 4's Matt's Exotic Tartare) that made Ramsay physically ill.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Was rushed to the hospital after collapsing from a severe migraine, and after the first dinner service it was announced that she would not be returning.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She had to be rushed to the hospital after the signature dish challenge, making her the second chef to leave Hell's Kitchen without taking part in a single service (the first being Season 3's JR, who got kicked out and edited out for malicious rumormongering during the signature dish challenge), and unlike Jason from Season 9, who at least got a second chance to compete in Season 12 after being forced to leave Hell's Kitchen before the first service due to being dehydrated at the time, she never returned.

Placement: 16th (Medical exit)

Antonia's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Season 9

Paul Niedermann

"Let's go guys! I'm tired of gettin' my ass kicked!"

Occupation: Jr. Sous Chef

Age: 27

Hometown: Davie, FL

• 11th-Hour Superpower: Got Elise and Carrie to shut up and work together. Ramsay himself never pulled this off.
• Achilles' Heel: While Paul was one of the best chefs on the blue team and ended up with the win, he royally screwed up fish on the sixth service, which resulted in his only nomination. Subverted in the seventh service, when he covered for the ejected Natalie on fish and managed to redeem himself from last night's poor performance. On his third time on the fish station, he sent up an overcooked lobster tail, but thankfully, it was not enough for nomination as everybody else looked towards Elise and Jennifer.
• Angrish: He delves into this as he reams out Chino and Brendan for their mistakes in the second service, being unable to finish his sentence.
• Ass Shove: Was on the receiving end of this. While sticking his head out of the limo on a reward, Will got the bright idea to shove the bottle he was holding up his ass. Paul's response was to accidentally knock the bottle onto Will.
• Awesome Ego: Outside of the one instance he was nominated, Paul was usually able to back up his bragging extremely well.
• Badass Boast: In the only time he was ever nominated, Paul used his plea to tell Ramsay that he was not done yet despite a poor performance and his fire was still strong. It worked, as Ramsay spared him from elimination and he lived up to that boast for the rest of the season.
  Paul: I'm sick to my stomach of what happened tonight; I ruined someone's twenty year anniversary, that they'll never get back. I feel that I'm not done, Chef. I take full responsibility for what happened but I really, really don't wanna go.
  Ramsay: I'm unconvinced. You disintegrated! You backed up the entire dining room!
  Paul: I know Chef, I had the worst service of my entire life! I am so disappointed in myself, that I am literally cringing! Cringing of watching you at the pass and I'm shitting on you every fucking table, 'cause I couldn't get my shit together! I don't want that to ever happen again, and I have enough determination to make sure it WON'T FUCKING HAPPEN AGAIN! That's why I still wanna be here, 'cause my fire isn't out!
  Ramsay: Paul.
  Paul: Chef.
  Ramsay: Back in line!
  Paul: Thank you, Chef.
  • That's not even to mention that throughout the season, he calls himself a "big fucking deal".
• Big "YES!": Lets out one of these once he is announced the winner of the season.
• Breakout Character: Much like Rock, he's made more than a few appearances in future seasons.
• Casanova Wannabe: Twice he tried flirting with some of the women during rewards, only for him to unsuccessfully strike out.
• Childlike Voice: Lampshaded by Gordon during the signature dish challenge, where Gordon asked him if his balls dropped yet due to his high-pitched voice.
• Dark Horse Victory: Despite how strong Paul was overall, Will was a consistently stronger chef overall in the kitchen and had more than enough leadership skills to possibly surpass Paul. In the finals however, Paul managed to complete the impossible and have Carrie and Elise work together without any issues, while Will's decision to keep Krupa on sunk any chances he had at winning.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Will.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Easily one of the show's most passionate chefs to step foot in Hell's Kitchen. He always put his all into service, and even on the one time he was up for elimination, Paul gave perhaps the show's greatest plea that was full of heart and so moving that Gordon immediately sent him back in line.
• Heroic BSoD: He had one of these when Ramsay criticized his final menu, with him even crying as he wanted to win so badly for his mom. Thankfully, he would recover and pull off the win in the end.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Will.
• Insufferable Genius: Was this when he came back in Season 11 as part of the team of past winners. He called himself a "big deal" several times throughout the episode. It was quite clear that he was very proud of being a Hell's Kitchen winner.
  • Carries over into Season 12, where he, Season 3's Rock, and Season 10's Dana are judging the contestants' dishes for one of the individual challenges. Paul is the most vocally critical of the three by far, and typically gave scores the same as or even lower than Chef Ramsay to the dishes.
• Large Ham: Usually reserved for the confessionals.
• Missing Mom: He lost his mother before competing and wanted to win Hell's Kitchen for her. After he won, he felt she was looking down from heaven with proudness.
• Nice Guy: Starting with Monterrey, he, Will and Tommy would applaud chefs after they were eliminated.
• No Indoor Voice: He gets loud whenever he gets excited or frustrated.
• Only Sane Man: He was the only blue chef that was looking forward to having a woman join them. But only because he was tired of losing services.
• Power Trio: With Will and Tommy.
• Something about a Rose: During one of the punishments, he actually does a waltz with Will with a rose in his mouth.
• Vocal Dissonance: He's a guy, but his voice is actually quite light.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He and Will were on the receiving end of this when they called Elise a stronger chef than Jennifer, which resulted in Jennifer's elimination.

Placement: Winner

Paul's Winner Comment - "I am BLT, $250,000 of a big deal! There's so much emotion going through me. I mean, I'm sad, I'm happy, I'm ecstatic. My mom's looking down on me right now, she knows what I've been through, she knows how hard I've worked. This is all for her. I mean, this is it. This is the greatest achievement I have ever reached in my entire life! I am a big fucking deal!"

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Paul won tonight because he's probably the most passionate, determined chef to ever enter Hell's Kitchen. He'll make a great head chef, because his enthusiasm is contagious. I am so proud to hand him over to BLT Steak in New York City."

William "Will" Lustberg

"I am ready to beat the shit out of people, kill 'em all, and sort the bodies later."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Jersey City, NJ

• The Ace: Absolutely. He managed to do something that not even Dave, Christina Wilson, and Meghan did, and that's avoid making a single mistake in service and thus, never incur Ramsay's wrath. It's to the extent he may be the single most talented chef to never win.
• Actually Pretty Funny: During the grape punishment, Will was not in the best mood. When Tommy makes a grape pun, Will can't even help but let out an audible snort of amusement.
• Batman Gambit: During the final service, Paul's first pick was Elise, so Will chose Krupa as his final pick to be on his team, leaving Paul to take Carrie and thus sticking Elise and Carrie (who'd been at each others' throats the entire season) back on the same team. This backfired horribly when Krupa screwed up the fish station while Elise and Carrie only had a minor altercation which didn't escalate, and it possibly could have cost Will the competition.
• Deadpan Snarker: He had his moments, but this moment stands out during the grape punishment.
  Will: This is so monotonous that I'm ready to stab myself...just for a change of pace.
• For Want Of A Nail: He was heavily expected to win over Paul, but his reluctance to kick Krupa off her section cost him the victory.
• Friendly Rival: With Paul.
• Graceful Loser: Admitted that his loss was his own fault for choosing Krupa (and waiting too long to kick her off her station), and gave Paul a hug when he was declared the winner.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Paul.
• Hidden Depths: In the second episode, he mentions he's afraid of flying.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: For his final pick, he made sure not to choose Carrie and have Krupa on his team so Paul would be stuck with Carrie and Elise, the two chefs who were at each other's throats for half the season. Unfortunately for him, Paul's strong leadership would not only result in Carrie and Elise managing to work together and pulling off one of the strongest finales in the show's history, but Krupa herself would pretty much cost Will the win, despite him being the big favorite to win.
• Honor Before Reason: Even though he could not stand Elise, he called her the better chef than Jennifer when asked by Ramsay. YMMV if Elise actually was a better chef.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Pretty much his decision to intentionally choose Krupa over Carrie for the final chef on his team, as it would've meant that Carrie and Elise, the chefs who were at each other's throats for over half the season, would be on the same team. Unfortunately for him, Krupa would struggle so much that it cost him his chances at winning, while Paul managed to get Carrie and Elise to put aside their differences and put out a respectable final service.
• Joisey: Self-described as a Pizza bagel.
• The Leader: Everyone seemed to look at him as this, as he was the strongest chef in the kitchen, and he would often be helpful to everyone.
• Nice Guy: He, Paul and Tommy would often applaud chefs after they were eliminated.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is William, but he went by Will during the show.
• Power Trio: With Tommy and Paul.
• Rage Breaking Point: While he was usually a pretty mellow chef, after he and the blue team were kicked out of the kitchen in the second episode, he would pretty much lose his temper.
• Reassignment Backfire: Pretty much what cost him, as he decided to have Krupa on his team rather than Carrie due to his hope that Elise and Carrie would sink Paul's kitchen. Unfortunately for him, Carrie and Elise would get alone (mainly due to Paul's strong leadership), but Krupa would do terribly.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: He nearly quit the competition at the beginning of black jackets because he could not stand Elise's attitude. Fortunately he decided to stay.
• Tempting Fate: During the spa reward, he decides to go for a brow wax, stating his wife does it, and thinks it couldn't be that hard. It immediately cuts to Will cursing up a storm in pain.
• Tragic Mistake: Was a badass who never once got nominated and was very strong in the kitchen. But the mistake that led to his downfall was picking Krupa for his team (hoping that Elise and Carrie would bring down Paul). She sunk on the fish station and he kicked her off the station far too late. By the time Natalie was moved there, he had already lost his chance to win.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He and Paul were on the receiving end of this when they called Elise a stronger chef than Jennifer, which resulted in Jennifer's elimination.

Placement: 2nd

Will's Runner-Up Comment - "It sucks, I much rather would've won. I didn't come out here for second, I came out here for first, but if I had to lose to anybody, man, I'm glad it was Paul."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Elise Wims

Also Season 17 (All Stars)

"No, I'm not going to shut up, because I'm fighting for my life right now!"

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 26

Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA

• Badass Boast: Her boast when Carrie was struggling on the garnish station and she refused Elise's help. See above quote.
• Batman Gambit: After having her worst performance by far, Elise would convince Paul and Will to vote Jennifer as the weaker chef. Despite Tommy saying that Elise was the weakest chef, Elise's plan worked out, and she would survive to the final three.
• Berserk Button: She was a Berserk Button for everyone: the viewers, the chefs, even Ramsay and Andi.
  • Elise's own berserk button is Carrie.
• Blatant Lies: So many times.
• The Bully: She did nothing but treat Carrie like shit from day one until Carrie was eliminated, and she was also a bully to Krupa as well.
• Bullying a Dragon: Insulting fellow contestants is one thing, but Elise also raise her voice to sous chef Andi. Andi quickly put Elise in her place.
• Caught on Tape: Got caught in at least two lies when Chef Ramsay checked the tape. Once, she accused Tommy of scoring the Beef Wellington wrong when the tape clearly showed that not only did he not score it, he told Elise he wasn't going to do it.
• Character Development: At the start of the season and all throughout, she was... well, herself. However, after she was eliminated, she appeared to have something of a change of heart. She actually worked well with the other chefs on Paul's team and even managed to put aside her irrational hatred of Carrie for the whole episode, not even getting into an argument with her once.
• Crocodile Tears: Every single time she is close to being eliminated (which is a lot), she will look like she's about to burst into tears.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She started off as one of the show's biggest bullies, but by the time she came back for the finale, she was more than willing to work with Paul and help him secure the victory, even putting aside her rivalry with Carrie.
• Glass Cannon: She was able to have some really solid performances in both challenges and service. However, she was also very mistakes prone in the kitchen. That, along with her attitude, resulted in her being a common nominee choice.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: She seemed to go off on a rant at the drop of a pin if anyone made even a comment that was even slightly not singing her praises.
• Humiliation Conga: In "7 Chefs Compete," it all went downhill for her after her team won the challenge. First, she was caught lying about Tommy incorrectly scoring the Beef Wellington, resulting in a Reason You Suck Speech from Chef Ramsay. Then after she was kicked out of service (with Elizabeth), she kicks down the bin which Ramsay made her pick up. Of course it all ended with her being put up for elimination. Luckily (for her, that is) she wasn't eliminated.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: It's true, she made no friends. At least until the finale, when she helped Paul out substantially.
• I Resemble That Remark!: When she was nominated for elimination once, she said "I don't wanna throw anyone under the bus"... in the middle of a speech about how all the other nominees deserved to go home instead.
• It's All About Me: She was the most selfish person in the entire season and was never a team player, caring only for herself and nothing else, and would often do her best to slack off as much as possible during punishments because it wasn't beneficial to her.
• Jerkass: Easily one of the most unpleasant chefs in the show's history.
• Jerk Ass Has A Point: While an incredibly argumentative chef, she was right that it was 100% Elizabeth's fault that they lost the reunion planning challenge, as Elizabeth told them the wrong cuisine to make.
• Karma Houdini: Played straight then subverted. She ultimately did get eliminated, but the fact that she managed to get as far as she did and keep her black jacket qualifies her as this.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The one single redeeming quality about Elise was that, no matter how combative, selfish, stubborn, and bitchy she was towards the other contestants, she knew better than to argue with or talk back to Chef Ramsay. And she shuts up pretty quickly when sous chef Andi put her in her place because Elise knows she can be kick off the kitchen at anytime with her order. A small handful of contestants throughout the show cannot say the same.
• Large Ham: She's so loud and obnoxious that it almost borders on parody.
• No Indoor Voice: Anytime she spoke, it would always be louder than everyone else to the point she drowned out the voices of anyone who tried to call her out on her shit.
• Pet the Dog: Was amazingly cooperative during the finale, was the most valuable member of Paul's team and put in an honestly strong effort in helping him succeed, even putting her differences with Carrie aside (something she never once did before). It could be argued that she had done this due to the fact that she wasn't competing any longer and therefore had nothing to gain from winning or losing.
• Took a Level in Badass: For all of her failings, she definitely fits this trope in the finale when she single-handedly led Paul to victory. She was the MVP of his team, covering several different stations due to her teammates' errors.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: She played the game like a contest of individual cooking skill, oblivious to the fact that ability to function in a team is central to success. She only figured it out when it was too late for her to win.

Placement: 3rd

Elise's Elimination Comment - "I came here to prove that I could throw down in a kitchen with the best of 'em, but they was intimidated by my leadership skills from day one I walked in here. I've been slammed, I've been kicked while I'm down, and I still got back up, I fought hard to be here. Thank you, Chef Ramsay, for being hard on me, and helping me to improve on my weaknesses. After Hell's Kitchen, I am prepared for any obstacle that comes my way, because nothing can be harder than this."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Thomas "Tommy" Stevens

"Oh, that was grape."

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 31

Hometown: Brewster, NY

• Age-Gap Romance: His girlfriend was twelve years younger than him.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: He can come off as this to an extent, mainly during punishments, and it doesn't help that he's treated as a sort of little brother compared to Will and Paul.
  • Ironically, Tommy was Will's age, and Paul was younger than him.
• Badass Boast: Had one of these after winning the creative beer challenge for his team.
  Tommy: This definitely proves the fact that I am just the most awesome of anyone in the world.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Looks quite a bit like Simon Helberg with tattoos.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: He had a few moments of this where he clearly had no idea what he was doing.
• Consistent Clothing Style: On rewards, Tommy often wore a leather jacket, a beanie, jeans, and a red bandana.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He wasn't the worst when it came to challenges, but in service, he more often than not avoided elimination by a hair.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In the eighth service, he laughed when Natalie almost tripped over his open oven door, leaving Ramsay to berate him on that as Natalie could have been seriously injured.
• Embarrassing Tattoo: Subverted. Tommy was absolutely covered in tattoos, none of which he was embarrassed about.
• Fatal Flaw: While Tommy had a myriad of problems, his inability to communicate in the kitchen was easily what was most notable about him. He often went quiet when being talked to, and although he said he actually did pay attention, his constant communication issues spoke otherwise.
  Paul: Tommy! Talk to me!
• Hellbent For Leather: On rewards, he was usually seen wearing a leather jacket.
• Humiliation Conga: In 10 Chefs Compete, this happens to him. He's first named the weakest leader on the blue team, and when put into a leadership position during a challenge, he ends up causing the team to lose. To add onto that, he's given toothbushes to clean the toilets, and he has another pretty bad service. He somehow managed to avoid nomination however.
• The Load: Aside from a few shining moments, Tommy never really established himself as a standout performer, and only really managed to make top 4 due to other chefs failing worse than him or front-runners performing on nights he wasn't nearly as bad. What also likely helped was that he was part of the Power Trio with Paul and Will, and on top of that, they were the strongest chefs of the season, which pretty much prevented Tommy from being nominated.
• Nice Guy: He, Paul, and Will would often applaud chefs after they were eliminated. He was also notable for being the only chef who defended Jennifer the night of her elimination, although part of that was due to Elise not telling him about her plan.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Thomas, but he went by Tommy during the show.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Was always full of incredibly lame puns, as his quote from the grape-peeling punishment shows.
• Power Trio: With Paul and Will.
• The Quiet One: Was notorious for his constant communication problems in the kitchen.
• Took a Level in Badass: Despite lacking the consistency of the other chefs, in the final service before black jackets (where each chef managed two courses in a six-course dinner), he finally emerged as a leader after Ramsay nearly chewed him out, and Ramsay later praised him for his "night of redemption" as he handed him a black jacket.

Placement: 4th

Tommy's Elimination Comment - "When I arrived in Hell's Kitchen, my goal was to create some passion and some art. The whole time I was here, I tried to stay true to myself. I don't care about mineral baths and foot massages and rich people, I like chicken wings and domestic beer and motorcycle rides. It's been a learning experience, a humbling experience. At the same time, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I'm a culinary juggernaut right now, compared to when I walked in the door. This isn't the end, this is the beginning for me, and I'm just gonna keep on climbing until I conquer the world."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Jennifer Normant

Also Season 17 (All Stars)

"SHUT UP FOR FIVE FUCKING SECONDS! That's your problem, you don't shut up and listen to what we have to fucking say!"

Occupation: Chef de Cuisine

Age: 34

Hometown: Boston, MA

• Beware the Nice Ones: Elise found this out after she went off on Jennifer too many times, which lead to the quote above. Even Ramsay looks visibly slightly shocked when she yelled at her.
• Big "SHUT UP!": She does one of these when she finally has enough of Elise's attitude and reams her out.
• For Want Of A Nail: On her final service, while Jennifer had a bad service, Elise was arguably worse with absolutely tanking the meat station. While it appeared that Jennifer was going to be fine, as she was on good terms with everyone aside from Elise, Elise had managed to convince Paul and Will to say that Jennifer was weaker. It's very likely that if they didn't go along with her plan, or if Elise didn't try it in the first place, Elise would be eliminated instead.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• The Generic Girl: Never stood out much for the most part up until her Beware the Nice Ones event up above.
• Heroic Neutral: Initially was this, but grew out of it.
• Hidden Depths: During the reveal for the All-Stars service, Jennifer revealed she had a crush on Season 5's Ben.
• I Work Alone: Stated during her first nomination that she would rather be left alone.
• Never My Fault: Blamed Carrie for the meat station disaster in the third episode, despite her being at fault for it as well and not paying attention.
• One Woman Army: Much like Trev in the previous season, after Elise and Elizabeth were kicked out in the 11th episode, she would manage to complete service by herself.
• Only Sane Woman: Pretty much became this as the competition progressed.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gave an epic one to Elise, which actually made Elise go quiet.
• The Rival: She became this to Elise come the final seven, where Jennifer finally lost patience with her and ended up giving her the speech above.
• Sore Loser: Did not take her elimination well, calling the rest of the chefs out on saying Elise was a better cook and flipping Elise off as she exited. Unlike Keith from Season 2, she didn't chew Ramsay out for the decision. Many fans shared her anger with her elimination.
• Took a Level in Badass: Started off somewhat weak, but after her first nomination, improved massively.

Placement: 5th

Jennifer's Elimination Comment - "You know, I'm tired of being second best, I want to be the best, that's why I came here. You know, to make it this far in Hell's Kitchen, I proved to myself that I can cook. That's the only good thing right now. They get to deal with Elise. I have more passion and more heart than any of these schmucks. They're lucky I'm gone, because I would've kicked all their asses, because I can fucking cook."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Jennifer finally found her voice in Hell's Kitchen. Unfortunately, it was when she was being eliminated."

Elizabeth Bianchi

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry chef, I'm sorry chef, I'm sorry chef, it's my fault chef, I'm very sorry chef!"

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 27

Hometown: New York, NY

• Achilles' Heel: She admitted that she had little experience cooking Hawaiian cuisine during the reunion challenge, and elected to go with Asian due to it being more familiar to her. That however led to her Epic Fail moment below.
• Blatant Lies: Her claim that the high school reunion committee said Asian instead of Hawaiian cuisine. In her Confession Cam moment, she herself said Hawaiian but chose Asian because it was more familiar and, according to her, "very similar."
• Crippling Overspecialization: She was one of the strongest links on the Red Team (until her final two services), but she was often a weak performer in challenges.
• Dumb Blonde: For the most part she averted this, but the reunion planning challenge she played this horrifically straight.
• Epic Fail: She completely failed in her job of coordinating the reunion meal. All she had to do was tell them that they wanted Hawaiian food and that one of the judges couldn't eat meat, but she sunk on that. Bonus point for telling them to cook lentils, which isn't related to Hawaiian OR Asian cuisine.
  • On that note, her last two services, where despite her being a front-runner for a good chunk of the season, she would fall apart horrifically and be booted right before black jackets.
• Fatal Flaw: Leadership. While Elizabeth was a strong chef on the line, she was horrendous when it came to leadership. Aside from her failure with coordinating the reunion meal, her final night saw her get flustered on her charity courses, as well as messing up on her other courses as well. This would cost her chance to be in the black jackets.
• Graceful Loser: Much like many others, she took her elimination well, saying she worked hard and felt that while she was just as good as everyone else, it just wasn't her time.
• Idiot Ball: She was usually a pretty competent chef, but she held this when for some reason she decided that Asian cuisine was very similar to Hawaiian cuisine, and pretty much told her team to cook it instead of the planner's preferred cuisine.
• Motor Mouth: See her quote.
• Nervous Wreck: Her frazzled nerves came to truly bite her in her final two services, where her performances were so bad that she failed to receive a black jacket, despite being way better before that.
• Never My Fault: After the prom committee challenge, Elizabeth refused to accept the blame, bringing up that none of her teammates scored points against the blue team. This would be fair, but Elizabeth not only told the team that the committee wanted Asian cuisine instead of Hawaiian cuisine, but she failed to mention one of the judges couldn't eat meat.
• Out of Focus: Aside from the aforementioned Hawaiian screw-up, she made very few mistakes and was almost never yelled at for most of her time on the show, causing many fans to predict that she would earn the same kind of Dark Horse Victory that Holli did. Unfortunately, she came off the rails big-time in her last two services, and just missed out on a black jacket.
• Poor Communication Kills: Essentially what happened during the prom committee challenge, as Elizabeth's poor relaying of information resulted in the Red Team being absolutely destroyed in the challenge.

Placement: 6th

Elizabeth's Elimination Comment - "When I stepped foot in Hell's Kitchen, I really wanted to just prove to myself that I could do this. I cooked my ass off, I tried my hardest. I think I am as good of a cook as everybody else in there with black jackets, but it just wasn't my time right now."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Tonight was all about charity here in Hell's Kitchen, and after watching Elizabeth's performance, I'm now ready to donate her jacket to a worthy cause."

Natalie Blake

"Please say one more damn grape joke. Please do it. Because I'm going to fucking choke you!"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 23

Hometown: Harrodsburg, KY

• Achilles' Heel: While Natalie did have a mediocre performance in episode 8 when she was on the appetizers station with Jonathon, and a bad performance on meat in episode 10 that fortunately for her wasn't bad enough for a nomination, her weakest station is easily the fish station. She crashed and burned both times she was on the fish station in episodes 7 and 11, and turned in by far her worst performances the 2 times she was on there, with her second time on the fish station getting her eliminated. Ironically enough, she rescued the fish station from Krupa after Will reassigned her there in the finale.
• Berserk Button: When her team was forced to peel grapes as punishment, Tommy started to annoy her with lame puns about grapes, which eventually led her to tossing quite a few of them on the floor and continuously jump on them.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Was a very strong link in challenges for the most part, but when it came to service, she tended to struggle a fair amount.
• Ensemble Dark Horseinvoked: The blue team appreciated her a lot for improving their teamwork dynamic, to say the least.
• Everyone's Baby Sister: Pretty much became this on her second night with the blue team, where everyone (mainly Paul, Will, and Tommy) were furious when Chino made her cry.
• Eye Take: They weren't brought up much, but she had some pretty noteworthy expressions, especially when excited.
• Hidden Depths: She revealed during the sixth episode she used to model.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: She had shades of this in her elimination comment.
• The Leader: Was this on her first night with the blue team, helping lead them to their first service win.
• One of the Guys: Natalie was moved to the blue team with all the men at the beginning of episode 3, and remained there until she got eliminated. In her exit speech, she stated she was happy to have spent most of her time there.
• Rule of Three: She was eliminated on her third nomination.
• Team Pet: She became this for the season 9 blue team after Ramsay sent her over to bolster the sagging blue team. After they started winning challenges, and the men pretty much uniformly loved her, even defending her when Chino tried to blame her for his mistakes. And even in the episode where she was eliminated, the three remaining men on the blue team didn't want to nominate her, but they had no choice. When she left, they all gave her a standing ovation and told her not to cry.
• The Smurfette Principle: Was this to the close-knit group of herself, Paul, Will, and Tommy, to the extent she was sort of considered a little sister of sorts.
• Two First Names: Natalie Blake.

Placement: 7th

Natalie's Elimination Comment - "I came to Hell's Kitchen to prove to myself that I'm a good chef. I just couldn't imagine sharing an experience like this with anyone other than the blue team. Hell's Kitchen was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. I came in here with the attitude that I can do it, and I never stopped having that attitude. It's definitely disappointing. I obviously came here to win, and deep down, I know I could have done it."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Natalie was lucky enough to get to see BLT Steak in New York. She may get to see it again... as a customer."

Carolina "Carrie" Keep

"I'm not just some fucking pantry girl!"

Occupation: Pantry Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Dallas, TX

• Arch-Enemy: Elise, Elise, Elise! She wouldn't give poor Carrie a break until the season finale after both were out of the running.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Her signature dish consisted of a chicken-fried ribeye with mashed potatoes seasoned with sugar. Ramsay and the others immediately did a double-take when she told them that, insisting it was like "an orgasm in your mouth". Sure enough, he quickly spat it out.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Carrie was absolutely horrendous when it came to service, but in challenges she had a few bright moments, notably even making a dish better than the future winner's.
• Graceful Loser: She took her elimination pretty well, saying that she didn't have any regrets, and the only person she had to blame for her failures was herself.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: She might not be as hated as Elise, but her poor performances and occasional talk backs towards Ramsay quickly caused the Red Team to lose respect for her.
• The Load: Carrie was often a very poor performer in services, usually requiring other chefs to completely take over her section. As for challenges, while Carrie could pull out a decent dish every once in a while, she usually ended up making one of the worst dishes of the day. Somehow, despite all this, she would make the top eight only due to other chefs making far worse mistakes than her.
• No Social Skills: Carrie had a really bad habit of talking over other chefs, which only increased the dislike her entire team had towards her.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Carolina, but she went by Carrie during the show.
• Picked Last: When Will was given the last pick, he chose Krupa over Carrie, not because Krupa was a better cook, but because Paul had already picked Elise, whom could never get along with Carrie during the entire time on the season. It backfired horribly for him when Carrie and Elise managed to work together with no friction, while Krupa screwed up royally.
• Stalker with a Crush: Carrie constantly flirted with Chef Ramsay and creeped pretty much everyone out.
• Took a Level in Badass: Did reasonably well in the finale, managing not to argue with Elise which helped Paul secure the win.

Placement: 8th

Carrie's Elimination Comment - "It's a bitch dealing with Elise. She's had it out for me since day one, but, all the drama aside, I thought I fought hard. I don't have any regrets, because, I mean, cooking with Chef Ramsay has been the most awesome experience I've ever had in my life. Only person I have to blame is myself. That's what just kills me, because I know I have it inside me, and I didn't do it."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Jamie Gregorich

"YOU NEED TO WORK ON YOUR ATTITUDE!"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 24

Hometown: Bradenton, FL

• Apathy Killed the Cat: This was what she was accused of the night of her elimination, as her lack of fightback told Ramsay that she wasn't serious enough about being in the competition.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: She was generally very quiet, even during the Confession Cam moments. Eventually, she was annoyed by Elise's very bad attitude like everyone else on her team and couldn't take it anymore, leading to the quote above.
• The Generic Girl: Didn't stand out much either way until her elimination, which was caused by this due to her lack of fight-back compared to Elise and Carrie, who did everything in their power to prove to Ramsay why they didn't deserve to go home.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Was mysteriously absent from the final dinner service as one of the returning chefs to help the finalists. She was replaced by Krupa.

Placement: 9th

Jamie's Elimination Comment - "It's not a good feeling to hear from one of the best chefs in the world that I didn't have what it took to stay here. It hurts, deep. It is tough to swallow my pride and walk out those doors. It's one of the hardest things I ever had to do."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Jamie's lack of fight-back told me she's not ready to be a head chef. The remaining chefs need to know it's not about what they've done in the past. It's what they do here that counts."

Jonathon Plumley^note This contestant passed away on February 9, 2022 from unknown causes.

"You know, if I had known it was that easy to bring a beautiful lady and to get everybody talking, I'd had Tommy put a dress on, man."

Occupation: Head Cook

Age: 34

Hometown: Memphis, TN

• Badass Decay: Sadly started declining sharply from the fifth service onward.
• Good Ol' Boy: Possibly the most stereotypically southern contestant in the show's history.
• Lazy Bum: See below.
• The Load: He was easily the weakest chef in Paul's finale, due to him being an absolute train wreck on the meat station.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Didn't contribute at all to dinner preparation (or service for that matter) because he supposedly pulled a neck muscle. Conveniently, right before punishment. Giving him an excuse to sleep in the dorm while everyone else worked. Needless to say, his teammates were not pleased, and Chef Ramsay called him out on it, pointing out how Dave (from Season 6) managed to win the competition with a broken arm.
• Never My Fault: After his first nomination, he would start trying to blame anyone for his mistakes. This would ultimately play a part in his elimination.
• Only Friend: While friend is a stretch, he was the only one in the season who had an interaction with Elise that didn't result in an argument, with the two even joking around. Granted they bickered in the finale, but it was mostly because of how badly Jonathon was doing.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• The Rival: He appeared to be this to Monterray, as Jonathon disliked how inconsistent he was while Monterray felt Jonathon accomplished nothing.
• Sore Loser: He didn't take his elimination very well, taking the time to say that Natalie should've been the one to go home.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Actually wasn't bad at the start of the season, being seen as pretty reasonable and likable. However, after his first nomination, he would take any chance he could to try pushing his mistakes onto others and being generally unpleasant.
• What Were You Thinking?: Chef Ramsay royally rips Jonathon a new one when he realizes the pineapple in his signature dish came out of a can. Jonathon lasted a bit longer than other chefs not named Rock who had put something that came out of a can or package in the dish, but still didn't make it to the black jackets, being eliminated at the halfway point of the season, but he did make it to the final as a team player.

Placement: 10th

Jonathon's Elimination Comment - "This is pretty disappointing. You know, it should've been a different call. Natalie's not gonna be able to hide behind that bullshit too much longer. You know, it's just a matter of time Chef Ramsay's gonna see through it, and, you know, she'll be the next to go."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "The only thing worse than the pain in Jonathon's neck was listening to him blame everyone else for all his mistakes. I was glad to put him out of his misery."

Krupa Patel

"Elise will never admit that she's wrong, and she just stood there with her eyebrows up and just looking."

Occupation: Private Chef

Age: 30

Hometown: Queens, NY

• Captain Obvious: When Natalie was looking over the carnage that Krupa caused on the fish station during the final service, she came across a piece of fish so badly charred that she couldn't even tell what it was. When Natalie asked Krupa what the fish was supposed to be, her only reply was "cooked."
• Failed a Spot Check: Big-time in the "fire and water" challenge, where she somehow mistook filet mignon for veal, causing her team to automatically lose the challenge for not using all five of the proteins.
• Heroic BSoD: She did reasonably well despite the odd mistake in the first four episodes, but completely fell apart after her screw-up in the "fire and water" challenge, eventually getting her kicked out two episodes later. Unfortunately for Will, she hadn't rediscovered her early form when she came back for the final.
• The Millstone: To Will; she was so bad during the final service that she pretty much single-handedly cost him any chance he had of winning (though Will didn't really help his case by waiting until Krupa had destroyed the team's supply of fish before swapping her for Natalie).

Placement: 11th

Krupa's Elimination Comment - "It hurts that I'm eliminated now, and I'm gonna kick myself for this for a very long time, but I have not let anybody back home down, because everybody knows how much I fight for things, and they know how much I have in me."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Monterray Keys

"I understand what he's sayin', and I'm listenin', but you ain't gonna keep fuckin' cussin' at me! I don't give a fuck who you are; Chef Ramsay, Chef Scott, Chef Andi, you ain't gonna keep talkin' to me like that!"

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 34

Hometown: Darby, PA

• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• Honor Before Reason: Attempted to make Ramsay change his mind on sending a Red Team member to the blue team after Brendan's elimination. Even though Ramsay rejected straight away, and the Red Team looked at him in disgust, his teammates all supported his view.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Yelling at Sous Chef Scott when he's trying to help you is bad enough, but then he decided to argue with Jonathon when Jonathon told him to fix his station? Yeah, there was no way he wasn't going up. He was very lucky however that Chino was far worse.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: As his team was deciding to put him up for elimination, Monterray seemed far more immersed in working out on the gym equipment than convincing his teammates otherwise.
• The Load: After Chino's elimination, Monterray would become the blue team's most consistently weak chef.
• Never My Fault: During his elimination, he said that Jonathon should've been eliminated that night, completely ignoring how terrible his performances were.
• The Rival: He appeared to be this to Jonathon, as Jonathon disliked how inconsistent he was while Monterray felt Jonathon accomplished nothing.
• Too Dumb to Live: Talking back to Sous Chef Scott is an easy way to get nominated.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite the blue team giving him a standing ovation, he still took the time to bitterly say someone else should've been eliminated.

Placement: 12th

Monterray's Elimination Comment - "I truly think that Jonny should've been eliminated because he hasn't done anything since he got here. If I'd have known, you know, to stay in the background not cooking anything was the key to stay in Hell's Kitchen, I'd have been did that from the start."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "It was high school reunion night in Hell's Kitchen. Unfortunately, for Monterray, he flunked the test."

Regina "Gina" Melcher

"Bitch, get off my guinea hen."

Occupation: Restaurant Consultant

Age: 34

Hometown: Cape May, NJ

• The Generic Girl
• The Load: Outside of her final challenge (that she won against Tommy), Gina was never really a standout competitor in either challenges or service.
• Never My Fault: She primarily blamed Carrie for the raw chicken during the chicken creation challenge, even though she easily could've taken control.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Regina, but she went by Gina during the show.
• Out of Focus: Didn't stand out much while on the show.
• The Quiet One: She did not communicate during the fifth dinner service, leading to poor timings and eventually, her elimination.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Subverted, she didn't really have any standout moments during her time on the show.
• Sore Loser: Zigzagged. She was not happy about being eliminated, thinking that Elise should've been eliminated (which to be fair to her, she wasn't alone in). However, she did admit she gave it everything she had.
• What Were You Thinking?: She had this reaction when Carrie decided to put sugar in her mashed potatoes.

Placement: 13th

Gina's Elimination Comment - "I do think Chef Ramsay was wrong to let me go. He should have eliminated Elise, she's a big problem on the red team, but I absolutely will walk out of here with my head held high. I gave it everything that I had."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "They say good things come in small packages. But unfortunately, in Gina's case, her talent matched her size: Tiny."

Hee Jun "Chino" Chang

"I am zen. You cannot penetrate me."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 39

Hometown: Hatboro, PA

• Bad "Bad Acting": During punishment in episode 4, the blue team took the time to act out a service in order to smooth over any kinks. Chino's acting... wasn't much better than his cooking.

Will: He can't even fake being a good cook.

• Crippling Overspecialization: Actually performed fairly well in challenges, but when it came to service...
• Hated by All: No one on the blue team had any faith in his abilities, and his rude and abrasive behavior didn't help matters. He pretty much burned his last bridges upon making Natalie cry.
• It's All About Me: After his second elimination, he would state that he didn't care what people thought about him.
• Jerkass: While not as bad as some in the past, he was still unapologetically rude towards many chefs, with him even managing to make Natalie cry.
• The Load: He constantly screwed up in the kitchen and was the blue team's most consistently weak chef, only managing to survive for as long as he did due to a few lucky breaks.
• Never My Fault: Tried his best to blame everyone else for his mistakes, despite how consistently weak he was.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name was Hee Jun, but he went by Chino throughout the season.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He tried to give one of these to Jonathon, as he felt he should've been eliminated that night. Chino would then accuse Jonathon of clamming up after Ramsay left. This only led to an argument between the two, where Chino did not come out looking any better (if anything, he came out worse).
• Ungrateful Bastard: Did not appreciate Natalie's help in the fifth service, saying that her help made him look worse.

Placement: 14th

Chino's Elimination Comment - "I am disappointed. My expectations were a lot higher. I came here to cook, you know, and it's a shame that I didn't get a chance to cook a little bit more, but I will never sell out. I'll leave this place with my dignity intact."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Chino took his time in Hell's Kitchen very seriously. The problem is he seriously couldn't cook."

Amanda Colello

"We're not throwing you under the bus, we're just telling the truth."

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 26

Hometown: Sun City, CA

• High Hopes, Zero Talent: She started out very well, having a signature dish that was liked, and was one of the strongest performers in the notoriously argument prone red team. Come the third episode however, Amanda lost her confidence on the fish station, resulting in her elimination.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: While she was the fourth competitor to be eliminated, she was the first woman to be eliminated.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She was a nice girl, but never got attention due to the Carrie vs. Elise conflict.

Placement: 15th

Amanda's Elimination Comment - "I'm so completely and utterly embarrassed and disappointed with myself. My dream, coming into Hell's Kitchen, was to win. So to have one of my idols tell me, 'You're not worth it,' that shit sucks."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Amanda lost the will to cook on the line tonight. I lost the will to keep her here."

Brendan Heavey

"My competitors will absolutely be intimidated by me. As soon as I walk in a room, every eye is on me. It's just something, some aura I give off."

Occupation: Head Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Hoboken, NJ

• Arch-Enemy: For the brief time he was around, he got on everyone's nerves, but he and Paul would get into quite a few arguments.
• Bad Liar: Tried to serve the same bass to Ramsay twice and said it was a new one, even going out of his way to search a trash bin for the old bass that Ramsay had, even though he knew it wasn't in there. This was only half of the reason he went home...
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: He has a very noticeable square jaw.
• The Load: Outside of his signature dish (which he copied from Ramsay himself), Brendan wasn't a standout performer in the slightest.
• Long Speech Tea Time: Gave one when he bragged about his potential and how much his family liked his cooking skills.
  Will: Bluh. Bluh-bluh. Bluh-BLUH-bluh-bluh. Bluh-BLUH-bluh-bluh-BLUH. BLUH-bluh-bluh.
• Oh, Crap!: Had one of these after he was caught lying to Chef Ramsay.
• Ship Tease: With Carrie. It never got much development due to him being eliminated the very same night it started.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Saw himself as the strongest chef in the competition, despite his terrible performances.

Placement: 16th

Brendan's Elimination Comment - "I'm out. Don't hate the player, hate the game. I'm sad to leave Hell's Kitchen, but I'm gonna go back to New York and lead another kitchen to greatness. I just want to give a shoutout to Carrie. Good luck. I am your biggest fan, and call me, all right?"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "The only thing bigger than Brendan's ego are the lies that he tells, and I can't have that in Hell's Kitchen."

Steven Paluba

"I've been cooking 30 years, nobody else has a chance in this thing!"

Occupation: Sauté Chef

Age: 44

Hometown: Ridge, NY

• Carpet of Virility: Showed off to good effect when he removed his chef's jacket. The white singlet he was wearing was almost a formality.
• The Generic Guy: Didn't stand out as much compared to his fellow teammates, including Chino.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: Literally. He thought of himself as such but did seem like a genuinely good guy.
• Skewed Priorities: After Ramsay chewed the men out over the fact that all their customers had walked out, and they had amassed a huge amount of dirty pans from their failed attempts to serve the entrées, Steven's major concern was cleaning the pans.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He was completely delusional about his performances, with him believing his messed up scallops were cooked correct, and during his elimination, he felt Ramsay made a mistake.
• Tempting Fate: As if already getting Ramsay annoyed at his general incompetence wasn't enough, overcooking the scallops and then trying to argue that they were cooked correctly probably helped ensure he'd be the first one eliminated.

Placement: 17th

Steven's Elimination Comment - "It's embarrassing, being the first one kicked off. I think that Chef Ramsay made a mistake, but it is what it is. It's done. You know, nice guys always finish last, that's probably me."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Fuck me! I realized early on that Steven has much chance of being the head chef of BLT Steak, as I do of winning a gold medal in figure skating."

Jason Zepaltas

Also Season 12

"This is huge! I pulled off a win with some tacos! Such an awesome feeling!"

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 29

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• I Coulda Been a Contender!: He managed to impress Ramsay with tacos and the only other person who actually cooked that was Elsie (and she garnered one of two good comments in that first episode).
• Crazy Enough to Work: His signature dish of pork tacos.
• Evil Laugh: Made a good one in this season's Pinball Zone intro. He later made another one in Season 12.
• My Greatest Second Chance: He returned in Season 12, not only impressing Ramsay yet again with his signature dish but ended up placing second.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Like Antonia, he left the show on medical grounds before taking part in a single service. Unlike Antonia, however, he got a second chance in Season 12. The fact that his signature dish clinched the blue team's victory compared to Antonia's dish making Chef Ramsay vomit probably contributed to this.

Placement: 18th (Medical exit)

Jason's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Season 10

Christina Wilson

Also Red Team sous chef, Seasons 15 and 17-present

"I don't get starstruck, I, I truly don't. But what girl doesn't think David Beckham is smoking hot? Even me, I, I like women, and I think he's smoking hot."

Occupation: Chef de Cuisine

Age: 32

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

^{Click here to see her as Sous Chef} 

• The Ace: Throughout the competition, She rarely if ever screwed up in either challenges or services. This all culminated in her winning the competition and, years later, becoming the Red Team's sous chef.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In Season 22, she bursts out into laughter upon discovering the Red Team had screwed up a punishment by churning butter over ice, causing them to have to do more work than necessary.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • While a nice person overall, she nearly hit her limit during the Fashion Night punishment due to spending hours carrying heavy risers and even snapping at Dana.
  • She was not impressed with Tiffany's outburst towards Barbie on Family Night, and voted her for elimination based on how unprofessional she had acted.
  • She's one of the nicer Sous Chefs, and gets along with almost everyone. That being said, she isn't afraid to verbally thrash anyone she considers a troublemaker - as Season 15's Jackie finds out the hard way.
  • In Season 18, she verbally ripped the Rookies a new one for arriving late for prep, even asking if they were on vacation time.
  • In Season 19, she tore Jordan, Mary Lou, and Fabiola a new one for not only joking around during a punishment when they knew she was pissed at them, but doing it at a punishment at the restaurant she is the head chef at.
• Breakout Character: In a sense. She is one of the few contestants to have made continued appearances on the show after her season, either as a guest judge or in the case of Seasons 15 and from season 17 onwards, the sous chef.
• Dude, Not Funny!: During prep in Season 15, Jackie jokingly wrote a crude name on the prep list. Sous Chef Christina, needless to say, was not amused and tore into Jackie for doing so.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In Episode 1's service, Christina sent up under-cooked wellingtons, causing Ramsay to pull the plug on dinner service. Though to be fair, that was just the last of several major screw-ups by the Red Team that night. Other than that, she had no notably poor showings throughout the season.
• Flawless Victory: She managed to win the competition without being nominated once.
• If It's You, It's Okay: She’s a lesbian but even she finds David Beckham hot.
• Meme Acknowledgement: During her run as Sous Chef in Season 19, she makes sure that the red team doesn't forget the lamb sauce. This also causes her to laugh a bit.
• Nice Girl: Unlike the other members of the Red Team, she didn't pick on Barbie (at least not nearly as much as her fellow teammates did). And when she did criticize Barbie or vote for her elimination, she had legitimate reasons for doing so. Also, in at least two instances where Gordon had the Red Team help the Blue Team finish service, she specifically tells her teammates to focus on getting the food out to the diners, and not gloat over their victory or argue with the Blue Team. Even when she admitted that Robyn bothered her, she would try to just shake it off and move on save for times where Robyn was behaving in actually crazy ways.
  • In general, she got along with everyone and only had a couple shouting matches (both of which were with Robyn) during her entire stay at Hell's Kitchen.
• Not So Above It All: After the Red Team loses the Blind Taste Test, she helps Kimmie and Tiffany barricade the entrance to Hell's Kitchen (using crates of wine they had to unload as part of their punishment) in an effort to stop the Blue Team from leaving for their reward (obviously, this doesn't work).
• Number Two: As the Sous Chef in Season 15, she was this to Ramsay, fulfilling the role in lieu of Sous Chef Andi. She is often the one directly assisting him and overseeing the contestants during services and punishments, more so than the other (new) Sous Chef, Aaron. She would fill this role again during Seasons 17 and 18 along with Sous Chef Jocky, and Seasons 19-21 with Sous Chef Jay (Season 7's runner-up).
  • In 2015, she became this to Ramsay outside of the show, having been promoted to US Top Executive of the Gordon Ramsay Group (basically, she oversees Ramsay's restaurants in Las Vegas and Atlantic City).
• Only Sane Woman: Managed to avoid much of the drama/infighting that occurred on the Red Team throughout the season. The only times she really participated in any form of drama or infighting is when chefs actively refused to take any responsibility and attacked others or acted unprofessional in general. One notable example is when Robyn was throwing Kimmie under the bus after a challenge, Christina let Kimmie know because it was uncalled for. Kimmie confronted Robyn and Robyn in turn accused Christina of starting drama, and Christina retorted back whether or not Robyn said what she said, which Robyn admitted she did. Christina then walked away from the situation. She is notable for being the only person on the Red Team who didn't fall under the common tactic of blaming Barbie without a legitimate reason for doing so.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: As the Red Team's sous chef in Season 15, she's shown to be quite capable of keeping everyone in line. Likewise for Seasons 17-21.
• Suicide Mission: Narrowly averted in Episode 7 when Robyn overcooks the last of the beef and convinces Christina to get some more from the blue kitchen (after failing to get Dana and Tiffany to do it). However, when Christina gets to the blue kitchen, she sees Ramsay and immediately returns to the red kitchen. A wise move, since, judging by Ramsay's later reaction to the mere suggestion of getting stuff from the blue kitchen, she'd almost certainly have been kicked out of the service had she been caught in the blue kitchen.
• Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of her initial competition, Christina was a nervous wreck at times and was terrified of failing. After she'd won and had spent time as an executive chef, her reappearances as the Red Team's sous chef showed that she was quick to lay down the law when the contestants weren't meeting expectations, proving that she wasn't to be trifled with.

Placement: Winner

Christina's Winner Comment - "Yeah! Oh my God! It feels so good. It's totally amazing, I can barely feel my body right now. It's so completely overwhelming, I'm trying to hold onto every second of it here. I'm incredibly proud of myself and just thankful that I have left my mark here. I'm excited to go out to Vegas and keep pushing that bar higher and higher until I- 'till I fucking touch the stars."

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Christina's passion and talent are undeniable. She's a strong leader who is totally at home in the kitchen. I know I'm not rolling the dice with her in Vegas because she is the real deal."

Justin Antiorio

"I really don't have much luck. Honestly, if it wasn't for shit luck I wouldn't have any luck at all."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Lyndhurst, NJ

• Best Friend: With Brian.
• Deadpan Snarker
  Justin: Chef, if someone screws up a dish, I don't need to come up and see for myself. Just tell me it's bad and I'll take your word for it.
• Flawless Victory: The first contestant in Hell's Kitchen history to score a perfect 4/4 in the blind taste test challenge.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Christina, they both respected each other as chefs.
• The Generic Guy: Until his blind taste test victory.
• Graceful Loser: Although understandably saddened by his loss, he was happy for Christina and took it with grace.
• Gratuitous French: Said "Oui, Chef" about as much as Benjamin from Season 7, but Justin had a much better attitude, so he got away with it for the most part.
• Nice Guy: Generally got along with his teammates. He did butt heads with them a few times (mostly Clemenza and Robyn), but he was never malicious about it and always tried his best to work with others.
• Power Trio: With Clemenza and Brian.
• Straight Man: How he appears next to his more eccentric friend Brian.

Placement: 2nd

Justin's Runner-Up Comment - "The toughest thing I ever had in my life, honestly, was holding that doorknob and not having it open, but I know I gave everything I could possibly give. I have no regrets. Man, this is the most amazing experience of my life, even though I didn't win. I don't want to lose to anybody, but obviously, Christina is a great competitor. She's focused, and she's a great chef. You know, to be honest with you, if I lost to anybody else besides Christina, I would've probably walked out of here, but man, it would've been great to open that door."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Dana Cohen

Also Season 17 (All Stars)

"Hell's Kitchen, Season 10! Making history. Only, WE'RE MAKING HISTORY BECAUSE WE SUCK!"

Occupation: Chef Instructor

Age: 27

Hometown: River Vale, NJ

• The Ace: Went through the entire season without getting nominated once before her elimination before the finale.
• Can't Take Criticism: Zig-Zagged. If Dana got criticism from some like Ramsay, she would take it as well as the other decent chef. But if she got criticism from another comeptitor, she would come down on them hard and refuse to accept it.
• Deadpan Snarker: She had her moments of this.
• Fatal Flaw: Dana's biggest problem at the second to last service was her favoritism. When Justin ran the pass, she gave him attitude and didn't have a sense of urgency until Ramsay called her out on it. When Christina ran the pass, she became buddy buddy with the former despite struggling on fish. This ended up getting her the boot.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Christina. It got to the point where Ramsay called the two of them out on it during the "Run the pass" challenge.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She might have had a cliquish personality towards some of her teammates (especially Barbie), but at the same time, she wasn't too nasty towards them like Tiffany and Kimmie were and her friendship with Christina was clearly genuine.
• Jerkass to One: More of Jerkass to two but...
  • Dana fell under the same cliquish attitude towards Barbie and deemed her a weak chef with any good reasons. It got to the point in the final eight where she struggled to pick Kimmie as, despite knowing the former had a miserable service, she liked her more than Barbie.
  • Dana also had a hate boner towards Justin after losing the Blind Taste Test to him and even accused him of cheating due to him getting a perfect score. It came to a head in the second to last dinner service where she gave Justin attitude when he ran the pass, only for Ramsay to call her out for trying to sabotage him.
• The Load: Was this during the final dinner service as she overcooked the halibut (and thinking it was okay to serve despite Christina and Ramsay's disapproval), and sliced into raw pork that forced Christina to restart the entire table. To be fair, these mistakes led to Christina becoming more vocal and more commanding of her team, and the latter still won the final dinner service despite Dana's mistakes.
• Ms. Fanservice: Definitely the most attractive female contestant in Season 10. She wears a skimpy bikini while out on a reward with Clemenza after they win the Taste It Now Make It Challenge.
• No Indoor Voice: In the confessionals.
  • Big "NO!": Her reaction to Kimmie's raw catfish getting the whole team kicked out during the Southern cuisine service.
    Dana: What are you thinking, Kimmie??!! This is not happening! NOOOO!!!
• The Worf Effect: Throughout the season, Dana seemed to be on the level of Justin and Christina, and very well looked like a potential finalist. However, in her final two services, she fell apart hard, as well as having one of the weakest pass performances.
• We Used to Be Friends: When she is on the verge of sinking Christina's finale service with overcooked halibut that Dana believes is OK to serve, Christina is forced to put the friendship on hold and remind Dana who's in charge. To her credit, she rebounds on the fish station to lead Christina to victory.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: After the final 5 service, Dana assures Christina (who had made a mistake on garnish) that she's still an amazing chef and what happened wasn't really that bad.

Placement: 3rd

Dana's Elimination Comment - "Hell's Kitchen has been so much harder than I ever thought it was gonna be, but I have to say that I think I did pretty well. I have Michelin-starred chefs, who have tasted my dishes and told me how amazing they are. Now I can leave here and say I got to serve David Beckham. These are all moments that are priceless, and I'm just gonna take these away, and even though I'm leaving Hell's Kitchen, I'm leaving with my head held high, and I know one thing, and that's I'll never stop cooking."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Barbra "Barbie" Marshall

Also Season 17 (All Stars)

"You ain’t never jogged a day in ya' life, and your ass shows it!"

Occupation: Catering Chef

Age: 34

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

• Arch-Enemy: Tiffany, Robyn, and Kimmie to name a few.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': No matter how terrible someone else screwed up on the red team if Barbie made even one minor mistake she was blamed for the rest of the team's screw ups.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Bears a strange one to Samuel L Jackson.
• Deadpan Snarker: So, so much of this.
• Epic Fail: Messes up on the scallops numerous times in Episode 2, which is how she ends up being hated by the red team.
  • Overcooked so many ribeyes in the finale that there weren't enough left to complete the final ticket, which was a reason for Justin coming in second to Christina.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Barbra, but she went by Barbie during the show.
• The Scapegoat: Thanks to Robyn, Tiffany, and Kimmie, nearly all the women used Barbie as a scapegoat for their problems, whether she deserved it or not.

Placement: 4th

Barbie's Elimination Comment - "I really did want to win, but, you know, Hell's Kitchen is not easy. At the very beginning, everyone was trying to get rid of me, but I didn't let that stop me. It wasn't easy, but I got a black jacket and got all the way to the top four, so I definitely feel like I proved some people wrong. I'm really proud of myself. I'm not gonna be bummed about it at all, I had a blast while I was here."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Clemenza Caserta

"Everybody's trying to fucking get rid of me, but you know what? I still put out better food than everybody standing there!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 41

Hometown: Long Island, NY

• Alliterative Name: Clemenza Caserta.
• Chubby Chef: And unlike a lot of overweight contestants, he was no Fat Idiot.
• Cool Old Guy: He's a 41-year-old Italian executive chef from Staten Island (making him the oldest contestant this season) who's overweight and suffered from shortness of breath, but still moved and cooked in the kitchen with determination and finesse. Funny and crass with a bit of old-school Brooklyn Italian in him, he battled his way through a record seven nominations to earn a black jacket and a spot in the final five before leaving.
• Deadpan Snarker: Clemenza had a few moments of this.
• The Determinator: Despite being seen as sloppy and a bit lazy, Clemenza never gave up, making it all the way to fifth place.
• Dramatic Irony: Eliminated on Italian Night.
• Large Ham: Proven by his time in the Confession Cam.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He was quite abrasive, but was willing to comfort the other chefs when they were down.
• One-Man Army: During the kid's menu dinner service, Clemenza single-handedly cooked and made all the blue team's pizzas due to his past experience as a chef at a pizzeria. He even put on a show and tossed them up in the air and spun them to give the kids a show. Even Ramsay had to admit he was impressed.
• Picked Last: He probably took it the hardest out of any chef who was brought back for the final service, as he truly believed that he was far better than at least some of the chefs picked before him. And, to be fair, he was somewhat justified in feeling this way, considering that even Ramsay was surprised that Patrick, Kimmie, Royce, and Robyn were picked before him. Justin ultimately got him for the final, and Clemenza didn't make much of an effort to hide his displeasure with being the last pick and nearly walked out on him. But he came around, and in the final service did a better job than Royce and even Barbie.
• Poor Communication Kills: During the seventh service, Clemenza was discovered to have cooked seventeen swordfish, with eleven of them being wasted. When asked, it was revealed that Clemenza believed Royce asked him to cook seventeen, while Royce told him to cook sixteen plus one.
• Power Trio: With Justin and Brian.
• Rousing Speech: In a CMOA for this season, when Clemenza was nominated for elimination in episode 7, he argued against it strongly. Even after the entire blue team said he should be going home, he gave a passionate speech that multiple members of the red team rallied behind. It ended with Gordon clearly respecting him for it and saving him from elimination. When Gordon told him to get back in line, almost every woman on the red team applauded him, Robyn even giving him a high five.
• Underestimating Badassery: Clemenza looked like an easy early boot due his look, and had a lot of qualities that Ramsey doesn’t like (fat, slow, lazy, greasy). However, his passion and humility took him incredibly far.
• What Could Have Been: Was approached to compete in Season 17, but had to decline due to health reasons.
• You Look Familiar: Makes a cameo appearance on an episode of 24 Hours to Hell and Back.

Placement: 5th

Clemenza's Elimination Comment - "Hell's Kitchen, without a doubt, is the hardest thing I ever had to do. It's been up and down, and high and low, but I fought through it. I had been up for elimination more than anybody. People thought I was down, people thought I was out, and I just kept coming and coming and coming back. To get kicked out on Italian night is embarrassing, but coming to Hell's Kitchen has definitely put some spark back into me. I know I'm going to the top."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Robyn Almodovar

Also Season 17 (All Stars)

"You'd better watch out, because you are messing with the wrong crazy bitch!"

Occupation: Executive Sous Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Hollywood, FL

• Ax-Crazy: By her own admission, and proven throughout the season where she turned even non-issues into a major confrontation and problem. One particularly notable example is when she started shouting in the dorms about Kimmie's steak, refused to admit she was throwing Kimmie under the bus, when Christina asked her for verification that Robyn did say what she said and Robyn admitted to it... Kimmie and Robyn were getting in one another's faces. Kimmie and Robyn actually looked like they were ready to fight and multiple other chefs had to hold them back.
• Drama Queen: No matter what team she was on, Robyn simply wanted to argue about everything to anybody in her vicinity. Even Christina called her out starting all the conflicts in the red team. She didn't let up, and it was one of the reasons she got eliminated after the first black jacket service.
• Epic Fail: In the Southern service, she sent up raw chicken. Twice. In a row. The second time got her team expelled despite a last attempt for her to take the bullet.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to make her explode.
• Irony: At one point Robyn accuses Christina of having a big ego that would leave her without anyone to help her (despite the fact Christina was doing well when Robyn asked to help). However, come the later episodes and it's arguably Robyn's own uncontrolled ego (or at least the temper it came with) that got both teams to dislike her and broke the early friendship she had with Kimmie, whereas Christina remained much more level-headed and was among the least egotistical of that season's contestants.
• Large Ham: And not in a likable way.
• Never My Fault:
  • After repeatedly complaining that her teammates on the red team were treating her badly and that she'd work better on the blue team, Ramsay had her switch teams and warned her not to try complaining about being mistreated on her new team. It only took her two episodes before she started playing that card once again.
  • Another example that actually got Ramsay to yell at her was in Episode 7 where Robyn kept pressuring her team mates to steal beef from the blue kitchen because of her own mistakes cooking. When Christina finally tried to do it and refused, Robyn tried to blame the women for being cowards, refusing to take any form of responsibility. Shortly after that Gordon found out not only did she run out of beef, she wanted to take some from the blue team. Gordon tore into her and set her straight, and with him she did not dispute the issue.
• Pass the Popcorn: Referenced in an interview regarding her big blowup with Kimmie.
• Pet the Dog: In the Southern service, she got the entire blue team kicked out of the kitchen, but attempted to persuade Ramsay to let the others stay. A class act, but cue the Death Glare.
• Sanity Ball: Held this in the premiere. After the reward, the red team was noticeably drunk and fooling around. She moved herself to the living room so she could properly study the menu.
• Taking the Bullet: Robyn attempted this on the southern cuisine service, begging Ramsay to only send her out of the kitchen and not the entire blue team. It didn't work, but A for effort.
• Took a Level in Badass: Did very well in the final service.
• We Used to Be Friends: She and Kimmie fell out on one of the challenges when she pressed for her dish over Kimmie's; Kimmie's dish was deemed great, while Robyn's cost the red team the challenge.
• What Were You Thinking?: Pretty much everyone had this reaction when Robyn told the judges she didn't like beets, so she didn't cook them. Unsurprisingly, she had a poor score that challenge.

Placement: 6th

Robyn's Elimination Comment - "I thought that I was gonna be the Season 10 winner of Hell's Kitchen. I'm probably one of the only people in this competition that's won so many challenges. I definitely have some memorable experiences here and some experiences I like to forget. Coming here, I didn't realize it was gonna be this catty, but there was 18 of us, I made it to the final six. I'm a winner, no matter what, in my book. And now, leaving here is gonna push me even harder and harder to succeed and show all those motherfuckers that are still here, go fuck yourself, because I am better than you."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Making it to the black jackets was a dream come true for Robyn. But cooking against the runners-up was a reality check for her and for me."

Brian Merel

"Protein protein protein protein duck duck duck duck protein protein protein protein duck duck duck duck..."

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• Best Friend: With Justin.
• Beware the Silly Ones: While he was certainly goofy throughout the season, the moment Guy tried throwing him under the bus after losing the fashion night service, he got absolutely furious.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: You can tell he's an odd duck duck duck duck.
• Crazy-Prepared: Revealed before the blind taste test that he trained for the challenge, although he didn't expect to do it after eating a bunch of wings. To his credit, it didn't slow him down, with him nearly getting a perfect score.
• Didn't Think This Through: For the signature dish challenge, he prepared a dessert for Ramsay to taste. Gordon was not impressed and questioned him on this decision.
• Fatal Flaw: His inability to be mature in services. While entertaining to watch, Ramsay was not entertained as it meant Brian was not taking it seriously, hence why he was eliminated before Black Jackets. After the finale, Ramsay told Brian that if he puts aside the silliness on the line, he could become a capable chef.
• Glass Cannon: When Brian really put his mind to it, he could pull out some really good services. Other times however, Brian could really fall hard due to him not taking himself seriously in the kitchen, which often resulted in minor mistakes snowballing into bigger mistakes. His final service was a result of him falling just hard enough for him to fail to make black jackets.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Randomly began speaking Spanish in the middle of one service.
• Hidden Depths: During the finale, Ramsay admitted that he was not only a funny guy, but a talented chef who just needed a bit more focus.
• Large Ham: One of the more goofier contestants.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: Brian was incredibly eccentric and definitely odd, but he was without a doubt one of the more likable chefs of the season.
• Manchild: Brian was one of the bigger examples of this, although it was more endearing than annoying, despite the fact it often worked against him.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Actually got him into trouble on more than one occasion, like when Ramsay asked him to taste an unacceptable piece of fish:
  Brian: It tastes like fish, chef. [Ramsay givs him a Death Glare]. (In the Confession Cam, he said he didn't mean to say this and sound like a smartass.)
  • An earlier instance happened when he ran out of cod, and, when cooking a replacement sea bass, he called Ramsay "baby". Ramsay retorted, "You cook like a fucking baby!" then kicked him out of the kitchen.
• Power Trio: With Justin and Clemenza.
• Spear Counterpart: To Season 8's Sabrina. Both were rather hit or miss chefs who made it pretty far into the competition despite having immaturity problems. Bonus point to Ramsay saying they could be good chefs if they lost the attitude. Where they differ however is that Sabrina's immaturity was incredibly volatile and only served to alienate herself from her team, while Brian's attitude was more lighthearted and didn't alienate himself, but he had a bad habit of bringing it into service.
• Took a Level in Badass: Was the strongest performer on Justin's team in the final service.
• What Were You Thinking?: Brian has a bad habit of doing this a lot. Perhaps the most notable example of this was when Ramsay asked him what an overcooked sea bass he was eating tasted like, Brian stupidly made a joke saying it tasted like "fish". Ramsay got so angry he kicked Brian out on the spot, and in the confessional, Brian was beating himself up over blurting that word out.

Placement: 7th

Brian's Elimination Comment - "I'm shocked that I'm going home. You know, with six people left, I thought that there was nowhere to go for me but up. I think I had a shot at winning, I really do. It's a terrible, terrible feeling to know that you got so close, but then just lost it at the end."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Brian had a lot of energy and he was a funny guy. But after tonight's performance, I wasn't laughing. And that's why he has to leave Hell's Kitchen."

Kimberly "Kimmie" Willis

"You done brought the Memphis out of me, HO!"

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 27

Hometown: Memphis, TN

• Achilles' Heel: While she was for the most part one of the strongest and most consistent chefs in the red team, her lack of fine dining experience tended to slow her down at points, and her plating skills in challenges weren't always up to par. Ironically, her exit from the competition was due to her poor performance cooking Southern cuisine, the one area she should have excelled in.
• Catchphrase:
  • She says "Fucking bitch" in almost every sentence where she's speaking to another woman on the red team and giving them attitude.
  • There's also variations of "I'm from the south/I'm from Memphis/I'm from the hood", repeated to the point that fans actually make fun of her for it.
• Cluster F-Bomb: She was easily the most foul-mouthed contestant in Season 10 and if there had been a counter for how many times Fuck was said, she would have been in the triple digits by episode 5.
• Country Mouse: She's from the south, as said so several times by herself.
• Deadpan Snarker: She had her fair share of this, mostly when it came to Barbie.
• Determinator: She was burnt twice during the season, but still kept going to finish service.
• Dramatic Irony: Eliminated on Southern Night.
• For the Evulz: She admitted to picking on Danielle for no reason other than she felt like giving her a hard time, after losing the lamb challenge.
• Informed Ability: Her specialty was southern cuisine. She managed to score points in this challenge (and in another challenge), but this was one of the few times she was able to shine. (the other being during the slot challenge). Ultimately, her poor performance during the southern cuisine dinner service is what got her eliminated.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After Tiffany's elimination, she would declare her intent to make sure that Barbie would be the next eliminated. The very next elimination would be Kimmie herself, on southern night no less.
• The Load: Some of her fellow red team chefs started to feel this way when, if they needed someone to sit out of challenges she would volunteer and then make stupid mistakes in service. One odd example is being fine with sitting out of the blind taste test challenge because she smoked a cigarette even though two of her teammates just ate spicy wings (and hilariously enough, one of the opposing team's members also ate spicy wings and got a perfect score). The stupidity in the justification was not lost on Dana, and Kimmie's failure to deliver on her final service lead to her elimination.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Kimberly, but she went by Kimmie during the show.
• Old Shame: She revealed in interviews she regretted the way she acted on the show.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: She was a huge gangster wannabe and always said about how if Hells Kitchen was da hood, girls on the red team (Usually Barbie) would have been flattened by now.
• The Big Girl: Very much so.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: What she's known for outside of her conflict with Robyn.
• Tomboy: She declared she was this and refused to have make-up put on.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After Robyn was switched to the blue team, she managed to get along much better with Christina and Dana, and she was a lot nicer in the finale. Also, according to a post-HK interview, she and Barbie are now friends.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Robyn. After the red team lost the planning challenge, she got pissed at Robyn for failing to listen to her suggestions on their dish such as using swordfish instead of sea bass, and adding spice to it (which was one the request the judges had). They made up later, but then fell out a second time when Robyn got her steak dish picked over Kimmie’s, only for Chef Ramsay to prefer Kimmie’s after Robyn’s dish cost the Red Team the challenge.

Placement: 8th

Kimmie's Elimination Comment - "I'm disappointed in myself. It was not my time to go by any means. Definitely Barbie should be going home right now. You know, she's been up five or six times. This is the first time I've ever been up there, and I have so much fight, and I've learned so much. I thought I was going to the top. I thought I was gonna be his head chef, and I guess I just didn't accomplish that."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "As a woman from Memphis, tonight's Southern cuisine menu should've been an easy walk in the park for Kimmie. But it turned out to be a difficult uphill battle, and that is why it was her time to go."

Tiffany Johnson

"I care, on a scale of one to ten, like a nine."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 30

Hometown: Warren, VT

• Arch-Enemy: Barbie; she never stopped attacking her until she got the boot.
• Ax-Crazy: Somehow managed to be even more of this than Robyn, mainly because Tiffany outright threatened violence on Barbie.
• The Bully: She and Robyn and Kimmie did this to Barbie quite often, using her as a scapegoat if they could or just disliking her in general. During one episode where the red team had to help the blue team finish service, she began to mock the men but Christina demanded she stop which she eventually relented. This didn't stop her from continuing to bully Brian and Justin in the dorms that night, and then mocking them for having an issue with it.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: She got drunk one night and told the red team about Royce's complaints towards Kimmie's dish during the Mexican challenge, only to blame Danielle, Dana, and Christina in the process, leaving the red team's teamwork fractured beyond repair.
• Child Hater: Flat out admitted to hating children. She felt that they couldn't appreciate fine food and that she didn't care what their opinions were when she served a burnt pizza.
• For the Evulz: Really this was the only explanation as to why she decided to tell Kimmie that Christina, Dana, and Danielle were bad-mouthing her taco dish, when in reality it was Royce who did.
• For Want Of A Nail: While prepping for service one night, Tiffany had Christina and Dana taste her potato gratin, but both said it was crunchy. Instead of taking the hint and cooking them a little longer, she ignored them and claims that they're okay. Due to this, the potato gratins come back raw during the dinner service, resulting in Tiffany getting pissy and sulking, Sous Chef Andi calling her out on being the sloppiest cook she has ever seen in her life, and being ejected from service and being eliminated that night. As a result, Sous Chef Andi ejects her from service, and Ramsay eliminates her for having no care in the kitchen.
• Gasshole: Tiffany has been showed to have several gross habits that often carried over into service. She once burped and farted during a punishment, disgusting most of her teammates and James, and at one point she put a knife near her mouth before using the same knife to cut some wellingtons. Sous Chef Andi even referred to her as "the sloppiest cook I've ever seen in my whole entire life".
• Graceful Loser: About the only good thing Tiffany did was take her elimination well, acknowledging she wasn't a good leader and admitting Hell's Kitchen was hard.
• Hypocrite: In episode 12 after the service and elimination of the previous episode, she continued to try to justify her bullying of the Blue Team by saying it was about the customers and the food. This is rich coming from the woman who on children's night dismissed putting in effort for children and was fine with serving them burnt pizza. Despite them being customers.
• Jerkass: Easily had one of the most unpleasant personalities of the season.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Let's see: ignores her teammates' concerns about her potato dish being undercooked on menu night, gets an order returned for said undercookness, has a hissy fit, gets ejected from the kitchen curtesy of Sous Chef Andi, and is eliminated over her bully victim Barbie on the same night? Yeah it's fair to say Tiffany deserved it.
• The Load: Despite making it to the top nine, Tiffany was passable at best when it came to cooking, and even on services where she didn't mess up, it was usually because she was paired with stronger chefs such as Dana. Additionally, she did nothing but bully Barbie and cause drama. Sous Chef Andi called Tiffany out on this in Episode 13, kicking her out of the kitchen for doing nothing but having an attitude.
• Never My Fault: Usually not said aloud, but when others ask a group who did something that she actually did she would stay still and look around. One example is when she blamed Danielle, Dana, and Christina for the men mocking Kimmie's usage of a flour tortilla. When Kimmie confronted the team, all three women denied saying that and Tiffany just sat there and looked around. In episode 8 when she got Christina to cook for her and still messed by waiting too long on the food and Gordon demanded to know who did it, she... stood there and looked left and right. Whenever she was vocal about not making mistakes she made, she would typically find a way to blame Barbie for it. Whether this worked or not varied from episode to episode.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Wasn't present for the finale and her spot was replaced by Patrick.

Placement: 9th

Tiffany's Elimination Comment - "I never thought I'd be kicked out of this competition this early. Hell's Kitchen is harder than I thought it would ever be. I wish I could've made it to the top two, I tried my hardest. Chef Ramsay, I'm sorry that I didn't prove myself as a leader tonight. But I know that I am, and, you know, hopefully, one day he'll see that."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "The most passionate I ever saw Tiffany was moments ago when she was already on her way out. That was just too late."

Royce Wagner

"I definitely feel that I'm the Rolls-Royce of cooking."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL

• Crippling Overspecialization: Royce was actually a pretty solid performer when it came to challenges, having a great signature dish and usually managing to score points over stronger dishes. Come service however, Royce was very prone to making mistakes, mostly due to his ego and overall incompetence.
• Deadpan Snarker: He was pretty prone to making some of these remarks, such as when it came to chefs like Don.
• Epic Fail: During the Dome Challenge in Episode 8, he left a 12-inch hair in the dish. If that wasn't enough, he didn't take the "shit sack" out. This cost the blue team their lead and the challenge.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Despite working at STK in South Beach under the league of Season 1's Ralph, he never really delivered outside of the third service.
• One Degree of Separation: As revealed during the tasting of his signature dish, prior to going on the show he worked under Season 1's runner-up Ralph.
• The Rival: To Patrick. Royce repeatedly clashed with him for leadership of the Blue Team.
  • Also to Guy and Tavon. Royce didn't exactly make friends easily.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Royce constantly believed he was one of the stronger chefs of the competition, even though he was constantly messing up in the kitchen.
• Sore Loser: It's subtle, but he was fairly bitter about being eliminated, as he truly believed that he was better than everyone else, even though he was extremely inconsistent on the line and was ultimately responsible for the Blue Team's service failure in Episode 11.
• Third-Person Person: "Royce can make spaghetti. Royce can make squab. Royce can make anything."
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After two services of having nomination-worthy performances, Ramsay called up his boss, Ralph, to give Royce a pep talk. The pep talk did help him that night, as Royce managed to have the best service of his run.

Placement: 10th

Royce's Elimination Comment - "Of course I'm not okay with leaving. I know I'm better than everybody else. I came here driven, focused, I pushed myself. I don't think I deserve to be standing here."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Royce came in promising a Rolls-Royce service. But instead, his service was like a broken-down car. Time to send Royce to the junkyard."

Patrick Cassata

"It was a dream to come here... and I'm blowing it!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 40

Hometown: Lombard, IL

• Graceful Loser: Took his elimination well, and remarked that he could at least go be with his family again.
• Heroic BSoD: Subtle example: after the fifth service, he was nominated for elimination, but he was visibly annoyed with the decision as he didn't feel he deserved it. After the sixth service, he was considered again, but insisted that he didn't deserve it, as he had been on the dessert station and made no serious mistakes; ultimately, he wasn't nominated. In the seventh service, he bombed HARD, serving cold lobster twice, but amazingly he talked his way out of being nominated; however, Ramsay ignored the nominees (which were for Brian and Clemenza) and brought Patrick and Roshni forward, and Patrick survived by the skin of his teeth. The eighth service is where his BSOD came in; he was visibly unnerved from the start, and after a few mistakes, Ramsay booted him out of the kitchen. Later that night, he didn't even bother to dispute his nomination, as he had clearly resigned himself to his fate, and was eliminated that night.
• The Leader: Attempted to be this for the Blue team. It worked... but only for a short time. It didn't help that he spent a lot of time bickering with Royce and/or Clemenza than being seen leading the team.
• Manipulative Bastard: Delved into this in the final 12. After a poor performance on the fish station, he managed to get the heat off of him by throwing both Clemenza and Brian under the bus, calling them out for being slow on apps. While it was enough to get Brian and Clemenza nominated, Ramsay ignored the nominees by calling both him and Roshni up, where he managed to survive.
• Manly Tears: Had this on two occasions; first when he messed up an order for a group of kids from the Make A Wish Foundation, and later on his elimination episode when he felt like he was letting his family down.
• The Rival: To Royce. The two of them clashed repeatedly for leadership of the Blue Team.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Took a Level in Badass: He managed to be one of the strongest links to Christina in the final dinner service.
• What Were You Thinking?: A minor one as the dish actually scored, but Patrick used the word mucus while describing one of his dishes. Even he was dumbfounded by what he said.

Placement: 11th

Patrick's Elimination Comment - "You know, I had higher expectations going into this. My family's gonna be disappointed and a little sad for me, but opportunity comes along, and you gotta grab onto it and try. It'll be great to go home though, and see my wife and kids, I'll tell you that."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Patrick talked a good game, but he couldn't back it up with his cooking, so it was time for him to leave Hell's Kitchen."

Roshni Gurnani

"People definitely underestimate me because of my size, but good things come in small packages. So, watch out."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Boston, MA

• Dude Where Is My Respect: She was not happy that most of the men wanted her gone over Patrick in Episode 8 even after she proved herself to the team and called them out for not believing in her in front of Ramsay. Unfortunately, she was still eliminated.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• The Load: Despite nearly making it to the top ten, Roshni stood out as being probably the weakest chef overall on the red team. She often did terribly in services, and as a result was nominated three times at the very start of the competition.
• Nice Girl: Was one of the more level-headed female contestants in Season 10.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Subverted. Despite having a pretty good signature dish and ended up scoring a point due to tying with Royce, Roshni was easily one of the weaker chefs of the season.
• Took a Level in Badass: Was poor in her first few services, but after being moved over to the men's team she actually did pretty well for a while. Unfortunately, her performances slumped again, and she was soon gone.

Placement: 12th

Roshni's Elimination Comment - "I'm extremely disappointed. I'm not in Hell's Kitchen anymore. It's a competition, and I'm definitely not the weakest. I never got involved in the drama, I never got involved in all the bullshit. I was here for a purpose. I just don't think I got enough time to prove it."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Roshni is a small lady with a big heart. Unfortunately, her performance tonight matched her stature."

Guy Vaknin

"Six chefs, one for each scallop, and one to rub their asses."

Occupation: Executive Catering Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: New York, NY

• Celebrity Resemblance: Bears one to Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman, even sharing a first name.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: His signature dish was a pan-seared striped bass with chocolate miso sauce. Ramsay described it as tasting like a "fish sundae". In his defence, he did warn Ramsay not to taste it.
• Deadpan Snarker: "Six chefs, one for each scallop, and one to rub their asses."
• Distracted by the Sexy: He spaced out during the swimsuit part of the fashion night episode. This might have been part of the reason why he was nominated for the second time, and then eliminated.
• Epic Fail: His signature dish was screwed up so badly he warned Ramsay not to taste it. Sure enough, Ramsay thought it was disgusting.
• Funny Foreigner: The first Israeli chef to appear on the show.
• The Generic Guy: Never really stood out among the other chefs too much.
• Hidden Depths: Before the immigrant lunch challenge, Guy revealed he only became an American citizen four months ago and knew how hard it was to become one as he applied twice.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Outside of his poor signature dish, Guy seemed to be an early pick to win due to his consistency in the kitchen. Unfortunately, around the final fourteen, Guy quickly started to tank in service, and was gone not long after.
  • Much like Season 6's Andy, Guy has been shown to be incredibly successful outside of the show. Granted this happened after the show, it's still notable.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Made quite a scene after cutting his finger during a team challenge.
• Never My Fault: After he flopped on the fashion night service and he was considered for nomination, Guy tried to throw Brian under the bus to get the heat off of him. Needless to say, Brian didn't take it well, and the plan didn't work in the end as Guy was eliminated that night anyways.
• The Rival: To Royce, who he regarded as whiny and immature.
• The Scapegoat: Was nearly on the receiving end of this, as after the first service, Royce would accuse Guy of sabotaging him by forgetting the anchovies as Guy prepped the salad station that night. Guy however would not be nominated that night.
• Token Minority: The only chef in the show's history of Israeli/Moroccan descent.

Placement: 13th

Guy's Elimination Comment - "I never thought that I would be eliminated this early in the game. Chef Ramsay definitely made the wrong decision. I stand behind everything that I did, and I stand behind every dish that I put out there. I thought he would respect that, and apparently, he doesn't."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Guy's performance in Hell's Kitchen was extremely inconsistent. And that is why I know he is not the guy to run Gordon Ramsay Steak."

Danielle Rimmer

"I'm doing more out here than I've done in my whole life."

Occupation: Saucier

Age: 27

Hometown: Bayonne, NJ

• Best Friend: With Dana. After being eliminated, she says she wants Dana to win.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She was one of the nicer chefs of the season, but she was more than willing to call out Kimmie for her treatment of her.
• Dumb Blonde: Kimmie accused her of being this after the fourth service.
• Epic Fail: Sends up raw pork during her last service. Twice. She was expelled from the kitchen and then the show.

Placement: 14th

Danielle's Elimination Comment - "I'm honestly, I'm pissed off. I don't deserve to go home. Kimmie and Barbie, they're sneaky, they're out for themselves, they're fake. I would love to see Dana win. She's a strong cook, and I hope that she makes it to the end."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Donald "Don" Savage

"My name's Donald... I'm old... I'm on a farm... I'm old MacDonald!"

Occupation: Cafeteria Chef

Age: 44

Hometown: Houston, TX

• Awesome Mc Cool Name: Don Savage.
• Book Dumb: Wasn't good at spelling, per his own admittance during one service where he'd been assigned as a waiter.
• Bumbling Dad: His above quote made him come off as this.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Repeatedly spaced out during services and prep, and seemed to have no concept of time. An example is his final service, where he kept yelling, "One minute!" on a redo for an undercooked steak, even after one minute passed. He ultimately sent the redone steak up with several minutes on it too many (overcooked), and is booted from the kitchen; he went home that night.
• The Ditz: See above.
• Epic Fail: He managed to serve a pizza that was both raw and burnt.
• The Load: After Tavon and Chris left, Don was easily the weakest chef on the blue team, due to constantly being lost during service.
• Nervous Wreck: He ended up as this in his final service. After messing up on an undercooked steak, he started to repeatedly yell "One minute!" on the refire, even after a minute passed. Ultimately the redone steak was overcooked, and he was booted from the kitchen and later that night, the competition.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Donald, but he went by Don during the show.
• The Scapegoat: He was almost this in the first elimination as the Blue Team thought he did nothing that night to help them. The problem with that logic? He wasn't able to help out because the problems on appetizers led them to fail on getting to entrées. As soon as Ramsay saw through that, he called the Blue Team out for a crap decision and did not even bother calling him forward.

Placement: 15th

Don's Elimination Comment - "I thought that I would be able to come out here and, you know, that he would just love my food, and, you know, I thought I was more of a... perfectionate- perfectionist than I was."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Everyone in Hell's Kitchen starts at the bottom. Unfortunately, Don stayed there."

Briana Swanson

"All I wanna hear is: Ding ding, service please, service please!"

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 32

Hometown: New York, NY

• A Death in the Limelight: Downplayed. In her own elimination episode, there was far more focus on the tensions between Barbie and the red team.
• The Generic Girl: Didn't really stand out that much. Even in her elimination episode, there was more focus on Barbie than of her.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Before the scallop challenge, the teams had to dig them all out of a pile of ice. Once Gordon calls time, he notices Briana missing a shoe. When questioned, she said it was somewhere in the ice pile.
• Verbal Tic: When Gordon asked her what the entrées were during the first dinner service, she said "um" and "uh" quite a bit, though she did name all of them correctly.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She never really stood out among the other chefs of the season.
• What Were You Thinking?: She once cooked three portions of risottos in three different pans, resulting in three different colors.

Placement: 16th

Briana's Elimination Comment - "I came here to Hell's Kitchen to challenge myself. I don't think Chef Ramsay really got to see what kind of chef I am. I'm a very passionate chef, but he didn't think that I was enough of a fighter about it, and he's probably right."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Tonight, Briana had a battle with the cod, and the cod won. And that's why her time in Hell's Kitchen was a short one."

Christopher "Chris" Carrero

"I'm nervous, but it's a fact that men cook better than females. It's proven, so I just can't wait to win."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 33

Hometown: Queens, NY

• Alliterative Name: Christopher "Chris" Carrero.
• Epic Fail: Overcooked scallops in the second service, which led to his elimination that night.
• The Generic Guy: Aside from his scallop troubles and sexism, he didn't bring much value to the show.
• The Load: Chris never had any standout moments whatsoever, with his signature dish flopping, his raw onion tart getting the blue team kicked out of the kitchen, being a weak link on the scallop challenge, and finally messing up on scallops that sealed his fate.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Christopher, but he went by Chris during the show.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Was only around for two episodes, with no standouts whatsoever.
• What Were You Thinking?: During his plea, Chris said that he got frazzled on scallops. Chef Ramsay sarcastically expressed sympathy and soon after, eliminated him as this suggested that Chris couldn’t handle the pressure of being the Executive Chef of his restaurant.

Placement: 17th

Chris' Elimination Comment - "Hell's Kitchen is brutal. It's tough. Chef Ramsay's intimidating, you know? And I just cracked under the pressure."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I'm sure that Chris prays that he never sees another scallop. And after tonight, I pray I don't see any more of him."

Tavon Hubbard

"This is the first time I've ever been kicked out of the kitchen in my career. Chef Ramsay, you're a fucking douchebag."

Occupation: Executive Chef (allegedly)

Age: 22

Hometown: Washington, DC

• Actually Pretty Funny: When Ramsay told him he hasn't even defrosted yet, he responded with an amused scoff. This... was not a good idea.
• Black Dude Dies First: He was the first chef to be eliminated.
• Epic Fail: His signature dish was this as it was drenched in too much vinegar for Ramsay's liking. So was his only dinner service.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: You'd think a 22-year-old executive chef would be the one to beat. Instead, he was the first one to go home.
• Honor Before Reason: Was not happy about being nominated for elimination, but at least went out of his way to defend Don when his team debated sending him home over Royce, whose equally poor performance meant that Don could do very little to save service.
• Informed Ability: Due to him being a 22-year-old executive chef, it would be presumed that he was insanely talented for his age. However, he was one of the worst chefs to step foot in Hell's Kitchen.
• The Load: Though it was the blue team's inability to progress past the first ticket that led to them losing to the red team, his gross incompetence alone made it impossible for the blue team to be declared winners that night at all, joint or otherwise.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Was allegedly made an executive chef at 22. If his performance is anything to go by, he is definitely this. Used against him by Ramsay.
  Ramsay: Come here you, EXECUTIVE chef!
• Sanity Ball: He had this when he called out the Blue Team for bringing up Don as a potential nominee, saying that Royce should go up because he messed up just as bad as him.
• Too Dumb to Live: Rather than acknowledging his flaw after Ramsay told he hadn't even defrosted after his failure with the raw pigeon and ruining all the scallops, he responded to Ramsay's comment with an amused scoff. This was ultimately got him kicked out of the kitchen and eventually being eliminated over Royce.
• Young and in Charge: Being an executive chef at 22 is impressive. Tavon's performance, on the other hand, was anything but.

Placement: 18th

Tavon's Elimination Comment - "Being the first to be eliminated sucks, of course. Nobody wants to go home first, but I did what I did, I messed up. But now, I'm looking forward to sitting on my couch and see Royce's ass go the fuck home next week."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Tavon may be an executive chef at 22, but he did little to impress me in his short stay in Hell's Kitchen."