There tends to be a few chefs that begin as The Scrappy, but they either redeem themselves as the season goes on, or are in retrospect regarded as having not been as bad as initially believed.
Season 2
- Also applying to All-Stars, Kelly was initially disliked for being incredibly abrasive and often picking fights with her fellow contestants. As time went on however, she started to mellow out a bit, although that hasn't exactly stopped her from having some backlash.
- There was also Hunter. He was initially disliked by his volatile and somewhat aggressive temper. Much like Kelly however, Hunter would mellow out as the season progressed, and improve his attitude as well as his cooking skills, which resulted in him getting to Black Jackets.
- Also in Season 2, Craig. Despite them not being very popular due to being seen as useless, he would quickly go on to be one of the most popular chefs of the season, due to his consistency after Taking a Level in Badass and being a genuine Nice Guy. It even got to the point some people weren't happy he wasn't going to compete in the finals.
Season 3
- Season 3 featured Brynn, who, like Kelly, was also disliked for her abrasive attitude. However, around the final twelve, she started to mellow out and even formed a well-received romance with Pory, resulting in some people being sad she was gone, and cementing her as one of the most beloved pre black jacket chefs in the competition.
Season 4 (All-Stars)
- All-Stars also featured Dee. Initially, he seemed like a front-runner, but eventually his willingness to pick fights with nearly his whole team resulted in him becoming incredibly disliked. However, after forming a friendship with Ewan, he started getting nicer and even improved himself enough to make black jackets. Unfortunately, this was averted as he tried to throw Kelly under the bus despite her not doing anything wrong in a misguided attempt to save himself and Ewan.
Season 7
- Mai. She didn't start off too badly, being one of the sanest chefs on the red team. However, as her mistakes started to pile up, her temper started to spiral out of control, quickly resulted in her being disliked by fans. After Georgie was eliminated however, Mai started to rethink her position in the competition after calling out an alliance in the red team, seemingly realizing that she was losing respect day by day, and deciding to try working with her team. Unfortunately, Rohan reaffirmed her belief in the alliance, and with her crashing once more, she was eliminated as a result.
