Awesome / Hell's Kitchen

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

Season 1

• After Jeff calls Ramsay an asshole under his breath, MaryAnn hears him and demands that he repeat what he said to her. When he does, Ramsay confronts him and Jeff continues mouthing off; Ramsay refuses to back down, which leads to Jeff's Rage Quit off of the show (as if he had stayed, he almost certainly would've been nominated for elimination).
• The red team in Episode 4 pulling a Hell's Kitchen first and serving all their tables before the blue team. Even better when you remember they were pulled from prep for awhile to help set up the dining room.
• We have Elsie, who was famous for being "a mother of six". Well, when she was one of the last four contestants, she had been chewed out by her fellow competitors (although it was slightly her fault because she had previously stated how she won the challenge for that day on live television) and is off to be eliminated. Ramsay knows something is up and asks Elsie if she was fine. Elsie could've taken the chance to chew out her fellow competitors...but she took the blow by herself instead. Sure, she was eliminated, but she showed much grace and maturity during that moment and kept her head up high the whole time. Special mention has to go to the Blind Taste Test. She just came off from being on the chopping block, but she managed to get three out of four points, and singlehandedly won it for the red team.
• Michael, the season's winner, was on the winning team in all but one service, and in the one service he lost, he was named the Best of the Worst. To this day, no other contestant has had this impressive of a record.
  • Speaking of Michael, his sabotage on Ralph. Knowing that Ralph was a threat, Michael took the chance to try and expose any weaknesses he had while running the pass. During this, he sent up two crab risottos that didn't have any crab in them, and Ralph ended up sending them out. When Ralph attempted to defend himself after they were sent back, Gordon pointed out that he should've spotted them, and Gordon admitted it was Actually a Good Idea. This would later inspire the quality control test seen in every season since then.

Season 2

• In an earlier episode, Heather, who would eventually go on to win the entire season, burned her hand (but recovered), and was forced to sit out the rest of the service. This didn't stop her from directing her team to victory as she waited for the ambulance to arrive.
• Heather ripping Garett a new one after he made a sexist comment that the women should cook for them after the men come home from a hard day's work. She did not let him get away with it. Bonus points for her for staying calm and level-headed during this entire moment, not raising her voice once to him. Tranquil Fury right there at its finest.
• The menu service for the blue team in which they managed to serve all their tables in record time despite having to be pulled from service temporarily to finish their delivery punishment. Special mention to Heather for saving the meat section when Garrett was struggling on it.
• It rarely happens, but whenever a customer goes up to Ramsay to complain while he's trying to work the kitchens, being a real douche about their complaints, and/or being really rude to Ramsay, Ramsay tells them off.
  • Case in point: when one lady decides she had waited for her food long enough and confronts Chef Ramsay about it, he doesn't even bother looking at her when he waves her off and says, "Take the giraffe back to the table, yes?"
  • When a customer comes up to Chef Ramsay and whines about his risotto not having enough pumpkin in it (said customer had already eaten most of the risotto before complaining):
    Chef Ramsay: Right. Well, I'll get more pumpkin and I'll ram it right up your fucking arse. Would you like it whole or diced?
  • Another example: when a woman tries to sabotage the service by throwing a bunch of dishes to the ground and ruining them, Chef Ramsay just casually calls for security to escort her out.
• While Virginia might be a Base-Breaking Character, it's hard to argue that she had one of the best palates that season as she won the blind taste test for the red team and correctly guessed all the ingredients in Taste it Now Make it Challenge.
• Rachel in general tends to get this reaction, especially in the fourth episode of Season 2. During dinner service, Rachel is assigned to get ice for the kitchen, only to forget the money. However, desperate to get the ice, she begs for help, which she gets from a few customers. While she does trip and break a bag, Rachel's overall hard work and determination was not unnoticed, especially by Ramsay.

Season 3

• Julia was one of the biggest underdogs in the entire series. As a simple Waffle House chef from Atlanta who pretty much didn't fit with everyone's fancy backgrounds, she was able to keep her calm in the kitchen and lead both her team (and once the Blue Team) out. Ramsay was so impressed that he would personally send her to Culinary School so that she could eventually come back to win the competition hands down. In Episode 3 when the chefs had to serve breakfast to the army and navy, Julia led her team to a near perfect victory and they finished way before the blue team did. Then, as an added bonus, Ramsay sent Julia over to help the men out.
  • For a good example, during the Breakfast Challenge it is clear from how casually she is handling and flipping omelettes in the pans just how in her element she was right then.
• In the first two seasons, usually it wouldn't be until around the halfway point of the season that either team successfully completed a service. This season, however, the women successfully completed a service in only the second episode, with only three, very minor mistakes (Bonnie not initially realizing a spaghetti was on order, Joanna forgetting part of a garnish, and Melissa subsequently trying to take over the garnishes and getting rebuked by Ramsay) committed throughout. By contrast, every member of the blue team except for Rock tanked hard that evening, leading to the team being ejected after managing to serve less than half of their entrées, and the women being sent in to finish their service.
• In Ep 6, Julia, Jen, and Bonnie floored the Blue team in the service. This was specifically poignant because in the first episode, Ramsay had dubbed the team "Hell's Bitches" due to their fighting and due to three of their former members (Tiffany, Joanna, and Melissa, who was on the Blue Team) bickering and being complete jerks. The three girls are, in order: a nanny (Bonnie), a short order cook (Julia), and a pastry chef (Jen). Their opponents were two sous chefs (Josh and Brad), an Executive Chef (Rock) and a Line Chef (Melissa).
• In a deleted scene from the finale, Chef Scott outright threatens Josh and Vinnie about if they fuck up and pull any stupid shit while cooking for Rock on his team. Later in the service, he takes the piss out of them for asking how long on the garnish.

Season 4

• Episode 5. Christina was nominated again for elimination, purely because her team thought she was arrogant. When Chef Ramsay found out about her nomination, he was alarmed and confused and called the team out on it. He asked Jen if she felt threatened by Christina, which Jen denied, claiming she was the one who decided her own fate in the competition. Ramsay quickly pointed out that HE decided her fate, not her. He then asked Rosann if she thought she was a better cook than Christina. When Rosann said she was, Ramsay promptly pointed out that she screwed her team that night. This is especially awesome in retrospect when you know that Rosann gets eliminated for being such a weak cook, and Christina actually ended up winning the competition.
• In episode 5, Petrozza managing to successfully fool Scott by passing off sliced steaks to bail Louross out on the meat station.
• We had Jen, the prototypical Reality Show cutthroat bitch. Near the end of the season, she remarks that the previous service practically gave her a heart attack. We immediately cut to a Confession Cam with Petrozza, the man Gordon praised for being selfless and polite:
  Petrozza: You cold bitch, you finally feel like you have a heart? Why, because you know there's a good chance that your ass is going on the chopping block, that's why you feel like you have a heart? Or are you just full of shit?
  • Immediately following that, the team draws names to vote on who to nominate. They work out that Jen rigged the voting, then discuss who is the best among them to nominate with her, forcing Ramsay to eliminate her rather than who the team put up.
• The rivalry between Corey and Christina is often labeled as one of, if not, the greatest rivalry in Hell's Kitchen history, due to it being surprisingly complex for a reality TV feud.

Season 5

• In a scallop cleaning challenge, Giovanni gave one of the best individual performances by cleaning 13 of his 15 scallops correctly and single-handedly gave his team the win.
• Both teams were able to finish the second dinner service despite mistakes from both kitchens. This was the earliest that both kitchens completed service in a season. Ji deserved mentions for a strong performance on garnish despite severely spraining her ankle.
• There's a J.P. moment when he sarcastically mimicked Lacey's excuse of never being a waiter before (she had forgotten to hand in a ticket for a table).
• Robert was in such a rush to cook appetizers that his pants tore, showing off his boxers. He ignored this and continued to cook while boasting, "I'll cook in my boxer shorts. I don't give a fuck." Doubles as a Funny Moment. The whole blue team in that service was a moment of awesome. They just lost Lacey mid-service and were down to three chefs. Instead of struggling, they managed to pull it together and serve all their tickets before the red team that has five chefs. Ramsay really gave the blue team praise for that.
  Ramsay: Since I've been here, I've never ever seen more teamwork than tonight. Well done.
• Paula's nomination in Episode 11, even though she had a flawless performance that night (and most of the past ones for that matter). Andrea had by far the worst performance that night, but had won an immunity card from the recent challenge, leaving options very limited. When Andrea told Chef Ramsay Paula was nominated, he was taken aback (while Paula actually chuckled) and asked why. She justified it with "lack of communication," which was blatantly false. Ramsay notes to himself that this should be quick. He asks Paula why she should stay. She starts explaining how she felt like she had been a solid performer throughout the competition, but Chef Ramsay cuts her off in the middle of her first sentence and tells her to get back in line. He wasn't kidding about it being quick.
• In the taste test challenge, it became obvious that he had the highest hopes for Paula and Danny when they were paired off against each other, and had them taste an entire dish and list off every ingredient in it instead of tasting individual ingredients, confident they would both do well, which they did. In the following episode, after Ben and Andrea's king crabs were lackluster, Ramsay called for Danny and Paula's king crabs, knowing both would be much better.
• Despite a few hiccups Ramsay proudly declares Paula and Danny to have managed the best final service in Hell's Kitchen up to that point... to the extent where he teasingly wonders how they somehow managed their crews better than he had. Still, he heaps on the praise for them both.
• In episode 10 Giovanni has the oh so bright idea to talk back to Ramsay after screwing up on chicken twice (for Ramsay calling him "Dickface") and Ramsay thoroughly eviscerates him for it in a truly epic display of anger.

Season 6

• Joseph was asked to give his nominations for elimination from the blue team and gave a simple reply of "They know who they are, and can step forward themselves." After Ramsay attempted several times to get Joseph to give him a straight answer, he finally tore into him until Joseph ripped off his jacket and stormed up to Ramsay challenging him to a fight in the parking lot after filming. Ramsay, who happens to be a martial arts black belt and in exceptionally fit condition, calmly stands inches away from him and basically challenges him to do it right there. When Joseph doesn't go through with it, Ramsay promptly ejects him... and spouts a one-liner as he trips over the bar ledge on his way out.
  • Robert, Suzanne, Ariel and Tek all get a small moment themselves for telling Joseph off for his poor behaviour and reminding him to show Chef Ramsay some respect, even though Joseph wasn't willing to listen.
• The blue team in the welcome home party put up an amazing performance, as they got through service without any major problems, and served all of their entrees in great momentum. They then managed to save the red team's disastrous service when Ramsay called them to help.
  • Not only that, but Robert correctly identified the type of cuisine they needed to go for when talking to Otis James' wife, that being soul food. Because of this, the blue team were able to make a mac and cheese/collard greens/fried catfish combo plate and a lobster tail surf and turf, both under Robert's direction, that was enthusiastically approved of by James' wife and won them the challenge.
• Who were the two final contestants? Dave and Kevin, both of whom were injured (fractured wrist and two sprained ankles, respectively). Dave won.
  • Dave also had a Crowning Moment an episode before. Each contestant had to cook a dish of a certain style (Mexican, Indian, and Chinese) for master chefs of that style. He got Indian, which he had admittedly never cooked before^note His protein was pork, which is basically a no-no in many areas of India.. He won the challenge.
  • Dave, in general, had several moments throughout the season, which would easily explain how beloved he is. One of the best examples was in the episode when Andy injured himself: while Andy complained that his injury hampered his performance, Ramsay pointed out that Dave had covered multiple stations by himself with no decrease in the quality of his output at all.
  • Then there was Dave's impassioned plea to stay in the competition when Ramsay voiced concern over the seriousness of his injury, with Dave refusing to stop cooking even as he was visibly in great pain. Dave insisted that he was not done fighting, and told Gordon that if he was to be eliminated, that it should be because of his performance but not because of his wrist. Impressed, Gordon honored his plea and thus Dave continued to give it his all.
  • In the season finale, Kevin demonstrated great leadership skills when he managed to fix Amanda's constant screw-ups. Had it not been for her, he may have won instead of Dave.
• Van with his signature dish. He boasted that despite people underestimating him for being a country boy from Texas, he has a sophisticated palate. He proved himself right by making a seared foie gras, with which Ramsay was very impressed. Made even a bit cooler when you do a little research on his background. He's the son of former WWE wrestler Gertrude "Luna" Vachon, and in her family, looks are definitely deceiving.
• When there are only six contestants remaining, the dinner service started off so badly that, for the first time ever, Gordon and sous chef Scott walked out of the kitchen. Immediately, Tennille and Kevin took charge of the kitchen themselves, managing to rally up despite the mistakes of others and Suzanne's unwillingness to send food out. Cue Ramsay returning and kicking out those who were doing badly, leaving Tennille, Kevin, and Dave to finish the service themselves with no more mishaps. Dave was working three stations on his own at one point. With a fractured wrist.
• The challenge when the teams roll a die with letters on them, name an ingredient that started with the letter they rolled, and make a dish using all the ingredients. For the blue team, the first one they rolled was haddock. Dave rolled an "F" and chose "figs." The men basically gave up and chose random ingredients after that. So they had to make a dish out of haddock, figs, tomatoes, angel hair pasta, and apples. Against the red team's rabbit, haricotvert, potatoes, hamhock and garlic. Amazingly enough, the blue team cooked a decent dish. The figs sweetened the acidity of the tomato sauce they made. That combined with Ariel's overly powerful garlic sauce nailed them the victory.
• JP's crowning moment of awesome (Episode Two): "Ladies first". Afterward, he dished out the "Listen to ME!" against Van (a guy who has quite a bit more muscle than JP).

Season 7

• In the first episode, both teams (despite having members kicked out mid-service) managed to pull a first in Hell's Kitchen history and completed the first service of the season.
• In an early episode, the entire red team was pulled from service. Gordon, along with sous chefs Scott and Andi, cooked everything by themselves and finished the service.
  • Happens again in Season 9. Gordon threw out the entire red team except for Jennifer in the middle of service. Jennifer (along with Andi and Gordon) went on to finish the service spotlessly.
• In Episode 5, Ramsay easily sees through the attempt to save Scott from elimination when Red Team nominates Nilka, sending her back and eliminating Scott. The next episodes starts with Nilka ripping her team a new one for pulling that stunt.
• In Episode 10, the chefs are combined into one team (while keeping their team colors) and have a time limit of two and a half hours since the customers will be attending a theater after dinner. With the exception of Nilka, who tanked on the fish station so horribly that Ramsay eliminated her from the competition mid-service, the team completed the service with no major mistakes and even had a decent amount of time to spare before the deadline. Needless to say, everyone remaining was named a winner, and Ramsay didn't eliminate anyone but instead gave the final six black jackets.
  • Ramsay even gets a heartwarming moment with Nilka, commending all of her skills and talent that she had shown every night before this episode, which he doesn't normally do after eliminating contestants in the middle of service.
• In Episode 12 of Season 7, Chef Ramsay leaves the kitchen for a moment and Sous Chef Scott is left in charge. Benjamin tries to take charge, but Scott immediately stops him and outright says to him that while he may be a good cook, he is a piss poor leader, and if Benjamin thinks he can do it, Scott will leave right then and there. He outright yells at Benjamin not to try and take over his job, but to get back onto his station right then and there.

Season 8

• After the red team gets brought in to help the blue team in the fourth service and fails to make the situation any better, Gordon kicks everyone out, leaving him, Scott, and Andi to finish the last seven tickets on their own. All seven go out without incident. This is by no means the last time in the show Gordon and the sous chefs have to finish service by themselves.
• In the first episode to feature the final six black-jacketed contestants, they had to create a dish and have it judged by a panel of five three-Michelin-star chefs. The judges each held up a numbered card (like at the Olympics) for presentation and then again for taste; the best score any judge could award for either category was 10. It looked like Gail, with a score of 87, would win the challenge, until Russell presented his dish... and received perfect scores in both categories. In a rare Pet the Dog moment for Russell, he did pick Gail to join him for the prize of lunch at the LA market.
• The blue team completely fell apart in one service^note Actually, they completely fell apart in every service that season, but that's beside the point, and Ramsay started kicking them out of the kitchen one by one. Eventually, the only chef left was Trev who, despite coming within an inch of being thrown out despite being in the winning team during the previous episode, finished the blue team's service by himself. Even though Trev had largely been a Base-Breaking Character, bordering on The Scrappy (with the obvious exceptions of Raj and Sabrina and later Russell), it was hard to deny he had kicked ass just this one time.
• Another Trev moment: After the Final Four chefs participated in a challenge, Russell took massive offense and tried to pick a fight with Trev, threatening that if Trev "talked back" to him again, he would "slap the shit outta you". Trev responds with an unflinching, sarcastic, "OK."
• Despite a weak start, Nona surprised everyone with her amazing palate, winning both the Blind Taste Test (scoring a 3/4) and the Taste It, Now Make It challenge. She went on to win this season.

Season 9

• In Episode 2's challenge, Will (who went on to be a finalist) was working on his own due to the men's team having one less member than the women's. The challenge was to cook four different pieces of meat at four different temperatures on one grill. Will was the only male chef (and, aside from the pair of Amanda and Krupa, the only other chef at all) to get every single temperature perfect.
  • Will in general is considered by fans, and was even considered by Ramsay himself to be one of the best chefs to have ever competed, and is one of the very few chefs to have never been yelled at or criticized by Ramsay.
• Gordon himself gets one in Episode 5. Both teams had to prepare five separate dishes with different cuts of meat, with the red team doubling up on one of the dishes as they had an extra member. When Krupa serves her Veal dish, Gordon realizes as soon as he's tasted it that she's made it with Filet Mignon by mistake. Given how often the Black Jacket chefs don't catch these slip-ups when they get the chance to run the pass near the end of the season, it's impressive that Gordon was able to taste a meal that was prepared, cooked, and served as veal and instantly recognize the mistake that Krupa, his guests, and the entire red team missed.
• Paul, who rarely made any mistakes, completely floundered one night on the fish station, sinking the whole kitchen. As expected, he was nominated for elimination for the first time, and immediately became of the few contestants to make an elimination plea sound awesome, owning up to his mistakes completely but showing enough passion that Gordon immediately sent him back in line. He never went up for elimination again and went on to win the season.
  Paul: I'm sick to my stomach with what happened tonight. I ruined somebody's 20 year anniversary that they'll never get back. But I feel that I'm not done chef. I take full responsibility for what happened but I really, really don't want to go. I had the worst service of my life. I am so disappointed in myself that I am literally cringing. Cringing at watching you at the pass and I'm fucking you on every fucking table because I couldn't get my shit together. I don't want that to ever happen again and I have enough determination to ensure that it won't fucking happen again! That's why I still want to be here; because my fire isn't out!
  Gordon: Paul.
  Paul: Chef.
  Gordon: Back in line!
• Jennifer losing her shit with Elise, who has been blaming her own problems during service on the rest of the team for 8 weeks now. Watching nice, even-tempered Jennifer finally ream out the Queen Bitch (and actually getting her to shut up!) was pretty cathartic. The following is from the 10th episode.
  Jennifer: Shut up for five fucking seconds! That's your problem: you don't shut up and listen to what we have to fucking say!
  (Cut to Gordon looking slightly shocked.)
• Sous Chef Andi had enough of Elise's bickering and lack of respect once during prep, and told her she needed "to show some fucking respect." This is the first time Andi finally had to tell off a contestant.
• Tommy got kicked out of the kitchen along with Jennifer (who was assisting him on appetizers) and Elise (who consistently messed up on fish). After calling back the team to chew them out and send them to the dorms, Tommy stayed behind to ask Ramsay why he got sent out, since Jennifer was the one making almost all the mistakes on the station, such as miscommunicating and taking his dishes up before they were ready. Chef Ramsay took it about as well as he takes any chef disputing his decisions, and ended up informing Tommy that he would "stick his head in the oven and talk to him through the gas burner!" Tommy's response? "Do it!"
• During the finale, Paul, despite losing the final tasting challenge to Will and being saddled with Carrie and Elise on his team, manages to pull out a win. He does so by being the sole chef the entire season to get Carrie and Elise working together. On that note, Elise may be the mother of all Scrappies, but she kicked ass during the finale. She was hands down the best cook on Paul's side, single-handedly leading him to victory. And she was amazingly cooperative and hard-working for someone else for a change.
  Elise: No, you don't got it, Carrie. You need help and Elise to the rescue as always. Captain Save-A-Hoe.

Season 10

• Andi telling off a contestant happened again when Tiffany had screwed the red team over by undercooking one of their key dishes (the service that night was the "teams make their own menu"). Andi told off Tiffany and repeatedly told her that "You don't care". Tiffany responded to this by mouthing off at Andi, presumably thinking there would be no repercussions since she wasn't Chef Ramsay — only for Andi to tell Tiffany to "take a walk" and get out of the kitchen. This is the first, and so far only, time a Sous chef has sent a contestant out of the kitchen; not even Scott has done that in the ten seasons he's been on the show.
  • In the finale, when Dana screwed up the fish and tried to reheat and serve them up, Christina called her on it. When Dana kept insisting nothing was wrong with her dish, Andi told her not to "fucking thwart" Christina and do what she says.
• Robyn had a minor one in the first episode - she cooked her signature dish perfectly, and then, while the other women were drunk and making crude sexual jokes ("How do you know when a scallop's cooked perfectly? When you touch it and it feels like a cock!"), she got up and studied in the living room, and was one of the only well-prepared women on the team.
• Roshni and Brian finishing a dinner service by themselves (on the Blue side) after Ramsay threw everyone else out and warned them that they'd better not make any other mistakes... or else! What really makes this a CMOA is that both of them came within an inch of their lives after the previous service, where they were the first of their respective teams (Roshni was still on the red team at that point) to be thrown out of the kitchen, so they both redeemed themselves in a HUGE way (though ironically, Ramsay barely seemed to notice).
• After the fashion show service, Clemenza was easily nominated after being overwhelmed on his fish station, along with Guy for essentially giving up. Ramsay asked the other chefs on the team who deserved to go home and all five said Clemenza. But Clemenza REFUSED to go out that easy: he kept insisting that he could cook, that his heart was in the competition, and he refused to give up, clearly earning the respect of the winning red team. He even managed to win over Ramsay, who eliminated Guy. This led to a good chunk of the red team giving Clemenza a standing ovation.
  Clemenza: I got more love tonight from the Red Team! Go figure!
• Christina got one during a challenge: both teams had to cook dishes for three executive chefs who rated each dish 1-3 stars. Christina was the last one up and she needed at least 7 points for the red team to win. Amazingly, her dish got a 3-star rating from one of the chefs (the only dish to do so) and put her team over the top for the win. That chef happened to be Anita Lo, who thrashed Mario Batali on Iron Chef America.
• Episode 11: The Craps challenge returns and just like in Season 6, the blue team manages to win against the red team despite getting a bizarre assortment of ingredients. In this case, the red team gets lamb and ingredients that go well with it, and while the blue team initially does well with heirloom tomatoes, then they think they are royally screwed when Robyn calls out dragonfruit and then they end up with daikon, edamame and chicken. In spite of the unusual combination of items, they manage to cook a delicious dish that impresses Chef Ramsay, and just like in Season 6, their win was helped by a usually competent member of the red team screwing up (in this case, it was Dana overcooking the Brussel Sprouts)
• Episode 12: After going virtually unnoticed for most of the season, Justin managed to become the first person in the history of the show to get a perfect score on the blind taste test challenge. Especially impressive since he had not ten minutes earlier been involved in a wing-eating contest against competitive eating champ Joey Chestnut (Chestnut won, obviously).
• In episode 15, during dinner service, the red team cruised into a very easy win with a smooth and almost flawless dinner service, but the moment of awesome goes to Barbie. For starters, she is the only chef in both kitchens who doesn't commit a single mistake throughout the dinner service. But the blue team's constant mistakes and horrible communication were sinking them fast, especially Brian's terrible performance on the meat station. What does Ramsay do? He calls over Barbie and asks her to take over the blue team's meat station, where she churns out perfectly cooked meat after perfectly cooked meat. Not only was she the best performer in her team that night, she single-handedly pulled the blue team out of the disaster zone and drove them into properly finishing dinner service.
  • It seems to be fitting that Barbie had this moment. For most of the season, it seemed as though her teammates wanted to see her gone, even though she was not nearly the worst one on the team.
  • Barbie also gets one in episode 5 after being nominated for elimination for giving arguably the best reason any contestant has ever given as to why she should stay. When asked why she should stay, rather than go into the typical and often heard comments such as "I never give up" or "I have so much passion", Barbie simply states that she's not the worst cook on the red team. Ramsay's reply? "I agree. Back in line."
• In Episode 16, the All-Star team (this time consisting of former runner-ups from previous seasons) faced off against the black jackets team. Unlike last season, the All-Stars were flawless in service, sending up dishes at an impressive rate, and barely having any troubles (aside from Jay getting overwhelmed on fish, but Kevin helped out quickly).
• After sending up raw chicken, causing Gordon to kick the Blue Team out, Robyn attempts to convince him to just kick her since she was the one that sent it up. Granted, all she earned was a scolding from Ramsey, but the fact she was willing to try deserves some credit.
• In the finale, Christina had both Robyn and Kimmie on her team, who had both caused many problems throughout the season and had proven difficult to work with. Under her leadership, Robyn made very few mistakes and Kimmie didn't make ANY mistakes for the entire service, which helped Christina pull out a win.

Season 11

• Episode 13: After Nedra's disastrous first performance on the blue team, which the men easily decided to nominate her for, she screamed at them as to why she didn't deserve to be nominated. Zach (who himself was taking several levels in jerkass as of late) wouldn't bend to her whining, and said in the confessional, "We ain't the red team. We ain't scared of your attitude!" Whenever Nedra would scream "I AIN'T GOIN' UP!!", Zach would calmly state "Yeah, ya are" without an ounce of fear. It was very relaxing to see someone stand up to Nedra for once and she ultimately went home that night.
• Episode 16 had The Passing Zone, dressed as chefs. They juggled knives and flaming batons, before passing them to each other by Ramsay. As Zach pointed out, one false move and it would be the end.
• Episode 18. The five black jacket finalists go up against a team of returning contestant chefs, which isn't anything new. But this time, they aren't merely returning chefs from previous seasons, they're winning chefs from previous seasons. Ramsay decides to determine the winner by scorecards. The veterans had 95% customer satisfaction while the chefs had 93%. All in all, it was easily the best dinner service of the season with only a handful of comparatively minor errors, and for them to do so well against the veterans was impressive to all, including Ramsay.
• Jon... just Jon. The last member of the suffering blue team and the only one who ever scored on a challenge. He was so good that Ramsey gave him his black jacket to keep and offered to contact him if there is a job today. And guess where Jon is right now? He works under Christina at Gordon Ramsey Steak. He's just that much of a badass.
• At the final service, Mary does the one thing that should've been done in previous seasons: kick out the chef that's doing horribly (i.e. Dan).
• You have to basically hand it to the reds this season, who managed to win against the blues by 10-2!. Special mention goes to Ja'Nel, who achieved an 11-1, with the additional 1 when she was sent to the blue team for one episode.

Season 12

• Episode 11: Scott's creativity finally pays off in a challenge. With each chef having 45 minutes to cook a dish with a different cut of pork, Scott gets the idea to make fresh ravioli from scratch. With Gordon calling it 'brave' but openly doubting he'll get it finished in time, and his teammates wondering what the hell he's thinking, it's looking bleak. Cue the final round of the challenge, where Gordon calls it absolutely delicious, along with praising him for finishing an unusually complicated dish on time. This was one of the first times a big gamble from Scott paid off, and he went on to win the first two Black Jacket challenges and eventually the whole season.
• Episode 12: In the wake of the biggest team change yet on the show (Rochelle and Sandra moved to the blue team while Anton and Scott moved to the red team), Ramsay sets up a "King Of The Hill"-type challenge (a person sits in a chair until someone has a better dish; the last person in the seat wins the challenge for his/her team). After a borderline game of musical chairs (Scott took the seat, followed by Sandra, then Anton), Rochelle took the seat and held onto it for the next FIVE dishes, including her former teammates Kashia, Joy, and Melanie. Rochelle won the challenge for the blue team, and you can clearly see the look of regret on her former teammates' faces for nominating her in the first place (which they admitted beforehand was based on Rochelle's desire to have a family, rather than cooking performance). Karma's a bitch.
• Episode 14: Gabriel finally realizes that he was on his last legs if he didn't do well on service and delivers perfect garnish after garnish while being the glue that held the blue team's communication together. Ramsay singles him as Best of the Best for the Blue Team that night.
  • The entire blue team gets the CMOA, as after they have delivered their final entree, Ramsay calls them over to the pass to congratulate them on one of the best services a team has ever had in Hell's Kitchen.
  • Another moment was Rochelle who, having never worked as a professional chef and having been given glowing praise for her beef wellingtons, was complimented by Ramsay, stating that she cooks like she had been a professional chef for five years.
• Episode 18: During prep, Rochelle accidentally cuts off the tip of her thumb. Instead of freaking out about it, she continues to be her usual bubbly self as she washes the wound before going to see the medic.
  • And she returns from the hospital just in time for service, even shouting "Yes, chef!" as she runs into the kitchen.
• Scott spent the majority of his time on the show as the resident bitch... which made his eventual victory even sweeter.
  • Jason also deserves some credit: he was forced to drop out of Season 9 before he could even take part in a single service, but he came back with a vengeance, made very few mistakes along the way, and deservedly finished in second.
  • Scott kicking Jessica out of the kitchen when she wasn't performing to his standards. Some fans speculate that this was the moment when Ramsay decided Scott was the winner because Jason had kept Sandra on, even though she had blatantly tried to sabotage him multiple times. It's partially because of this that Scott is usually considered to have had the best final service of any finalist, and why he ended up winning Season 12 after being the most nominated chef on that season for elimination.
• A minor moment for DeMarco, but him not hesitating to get between Jason and Mike when the two are close to coming to blows, despite the fact the two are much bigger than him and Mike was a former soldier. Despite his lack of skill when it comes to cooking, it's hard to deny he ruled just this once.
• Andi ripping Anton to shreds when he attempts to blame the oven for his failings on Wellingtons. Even Gordon was shocked by her outburst.

Season 13

• The red team's performance in the first service. For perspective, only four teams in the entire history of Hell's Kitchen until that point had completed the first night's service, and even then with several caveats (the Season 7 red and blue teams were merged into one to finish the service, the Season 11 red and blue teams had four and eight chefs thrown out respectively, and both seasons had Ramsay promising a completed first service). This season's red team not only finished the service without anyone being thrown out, but the only thing to go even slightly wrong was also Janai not serving enough scallops on the last appetizer, a mistake that she immediately resolved.
• After Frank, Sterling, and Bryant get kicked out in episode 3's service, the remaining chefs (Aaron, Steve, JR, Fernando & Santos) finished the service quickly and without any problems. This led to an easy victory for the blue team since Ramsay threw out the entire red team for La Tasha's raw salmon and for Kalen and Denine performing horribly on the meat station.
• For the third time, a team taking the craps challenge gets a horrible combination of ingredients (in this case, three acidic fruits with nothing to counteract it) and pulls out a win because of high talent and the opposing team's mistakes. Unlike in Seasons 6 and 10, it's the red team that wins (thanks to La Tasha's skill) and the blue team that messes up (Bryant got his dish chosen, only to find he'd failed to season the daikon).
• In episode 9, after Steve was forced out of the competition due to a knee injury (sustained while doing the punishment for losing the aforementioned craps challenge), the blue team seemed motivated to pull out a victory for him. They did, with Ramsay never shown yelling at any of them once: Santos was flawless on appetizers, Bryant aced the fish station, and even the generally mediocre Aaron excelled on the always difficult, sometimes disastrous meat station.
  Aaron: This one's for Steve.
• Every service after the first one, something always happened that hindered the red team's performance and often caused them to lose. Episode 10 has only four red team members remaining, and from the beginning to the end of the dinner service, they are a well-oiled machine: Sterling giving a stellar performance on appetizers (and also quickly helping Jennifer once a lot of orders of flatbread were coming in so she wouldn't get swamped), Jennifer rocking the garnish, La Tasha flawlessly on meats, and even the often inconsistent Roe excelling in the fish station, all together delivering a smooth, almost perfect service (the only mistake being a flare-up on Roe's station that Ramsay quickly handled) that reached the levels of excellence the red team had achieved in the first dinner service that had Chef Ramsay quite pleased.
• Sade entering episode 12's amuse-bouche challenge with a dish that included napa cabbage and passion fruit. Gordon and guest judge Tanya Steel are immediately incredulous at this choice of ingredients, and it seems that Sade's going to receive her eighth punishment in a row. Cue both judges declaring the dish to be delicious and giving it 9 out of 10 points, easily winning the challenge.
• Episode 13's dinner service is a big one for Andi, James, and Gordon. They're competing against the whole of the black jacket team, and despite being just three people, they utterly thrash the black jackets. They complete their service quickly and near flawlessly, finishing five tickets ahead of the other team. The only problems they run into are James slightly falling behind on orders and wasting time plating his dishes.

Season 14

• The majority of the chefs got one in the first episode, where a whopping 15 of the 18 contestants impressed Chef Ramsay (the previous record was 11 out of 18 in season 9). On top of that, all nine members of the blue team earned Ramsay's praise (the only middling reviews going to Randy, Michael and Bret, who each got 3 out of 5). But the only two people to earn perfect 5's for their dishes were on the red team (Meghan and T), so all in all, they set the bar high.
• Randy managing to get a perfect 10 out of 10 from both Chef Ramsay and a high profile Greek chef who had flown all the way from New York to be part of the challenge, in spite of the fact that he had never even eaten a Greek dish before in his life.
• After kicking out the red team for having 8 tables left against the blue team's last ticket in episode 7, Ramsay got the blue team into the red kitchen. Despite having some trouble finishing their own service, the blue team served the red team's remaining tables without a single mistake.
• Milly becoming the second person ever to get a perfect 4/4 on the blind taste test.
• Episode 12 had an awesome moment for Michelle when she beat out Meghan's porterhouse steak with her flank steak (which is considered one of the cheaper cuts) at the last minute!
• For anyone sick of the way Michelle is constantly treated by her teammates, in episode 14, Chef Ramsay chews the others out for nominating her for no real reason other than the "process of elimination" instead of Milly, who had a problematic service.
  • Nick also gets a moment of awesome, calling out Meghan for nominating Michelle due to her refusal to nominate Milly, stating that she doesn't even have the guts to look her in the eye.

Season 15

• Jared got one in the signature dish challenge not just for making a dish that Ramsay liked, but also for guessing exactly the score he would receive.
  Ramsay: You're a poker player. What do you think I'm going to say?
  Jared: 4.
  Ramsay: Wow. (Beat) Well done.
• Sous Chef Christina ripping Jackie a new one for titling the prep list with a vulgar word.
• In episode 11, both teams pushed entrees out at an impressive rate, but the blue team won in seconds of sending their last ticket over the red team (who sent their dishes out to the pass first, but Jackie's raw fish stalled them). Ramsay even noted that that was one of the best services he has seen so far.
• The Red Team absolutely dominates the Blue Team in this season's blind taste challenge by a staggering 8-3. Not only did Red Team win the challenge, but all of their members scored at least two points, and subsequently none of them were blasted by the toppings/whip cream guns.

Season 16

• The season opener. Ramsay has the chefs brought to a military base instead of the kitchen, to have them learn discipline. After they change into fatigues, they assemble in front of a climbing wall with the Hell's Kitchen logo on it, and Ramsay stands in front of it striking his trademark Badass Armfold and tells them their first challenge is behind that wall. Cue the wall falling forward, the paper Hell's Kitchen logo tearing around Ramsay, to reveal the entrance to Hell's Kitchen and a crowd of observers. All while Ramsay unflinchingly continues to stare with his arms crossed.
• The first dinner service was one for the Red team. They went the whole night without pissing off Ramsay once, and all of their food was punctual and delicious, making this the single best opening night service for any team in the show's history. Not bad for a first night!
  • Before Episode 6, the red team basically trashed the blue team in services, as they only lost ONE service in the first 5 episodes, and each member is very consistent. It gets to the point that after the Blue Team gets kicked out of the kitchen while the Red Team has an excellent service in Episode 5, Chef Ramsay tells the Blue Team that if they don't get their act together, all the black jackets this season will go to the Red Team.
  • In total amount of wins, the red team won eight dinner services, the highest to date!
• With Aaron leaving, Devin has had enough of his teammates throwing him under the bus. Despite having him struggle with the crossword, he manages to get the highest score out of the whole blue team in the Ingredient Crossword challenge with 4 points alongside Matt and Koop's 3, while Paulie and Andrew, his main detractors, got a taste of humble pie with their low scores. To top it off, his efforts managed to get enough points to prevent Ryan's strongest dish from winning. And after the sixth service and finding out the team had a meeting behind his back, he fightbacks his team for using him as a scapegoat for their mistakes.
• The new red team (consisting of 4 original members and new additions Matt and Andrew) rescuing the ballroom dance service after the blue team was kicked out for being 10 tables behind them.
• Give props to Wendy in the blind tasting challenge. She not only scored a perfect run on her first attempt, but she also managed to win the sudden death round for the blue team.
• Following Kimberly and Paulie's double elimination after the first Black Jacket service, Ryan, Heather and Heidi became the first trio of chefs in the show's history to make it to the Final Three and completely avoid being nominated for elimination while doing so.
• Devin and Koop, two chefs who didn't make it to the Black Jackets, stepping to the rescue of their respective teams in the finale. With Koop taking over on fish and Devin taking over on meat, they both completed service perfectly on the two stations that are widely regarded as the most difficult - and certainly most prone to mistakes - in Hell's Kitchen.
  • Notably, they both take over stations from chefs that had made it further into the competition than they had (Kimberly for Devin and Wendy for Koop). It goes to show just how much potential they each had if they had survived their eliminations.

Season 17 (All Stars)

• Let's get this out of the way: 16 returning chefs from past seasons are coming back!
• Giovanni was summoned to bail out Elise at the meat station during the opening service.
• In Episode 3, the red team was forced to eat a disgusting fish meal and Elise doesn't bother even taking a bite. When she tries to lie in front of Sous Chef Christina, the latter checks everyone's breath and when Elise obviously fails, Christina forces her to eat it in front of her.
  • In the same episode, the blue team managing to win the seafood tower challenge despite the red team having a 30-second head start.
• The red team making a comeback in Episode 4, winning the challenge and the dinner service.
• In episode 5, aside from Josh's performance which causes him to leave mid-service and some minor issues surrounding both kitchens, this is the earliest where both kitchens are able to complete their service, which Gordon declared both teams winners of the night.
• Manda calls it karmic justice when Michelle slips in front of the oven, after having misled Manda on the readiness of a pasta appetizer. Manda has celiac and is unable to taste the dish herself.
  • For emphasis, she has a confessional in that episode labelled "Gluten-Free Since 1984."
• In the cave meat challenge, Robyn scored the winning point on her elk dish, beginning a string of strong challenge performances. This helped her live up to her self-anointed title of "Bounceback Queen".
• The blue team's performance at dinner service during Episode 8. In short; all five of them were in perfect harmony (yes, even the inconsistent Robyn), none of their food was sent back, and they completed the red team's tickets when the latter was kicked out after their own disastrous service. All in all, it was a perfect service and possibly the best service in Hell's Kitchen history.
• The blue team delivered a Curb-Stomp Battle to the red team in the Blind Taste Test with a whopping 8-2. Special mention goes to Robyn and Benjamin who redeemed themselves for their poor performances on their last seasons with two 3 out of 4's each.
• Milly and Benjamin's leadership during the charity dinner.
• For the Taste It, Now Make It Challenge, Milly being the only one to correctly guess that the green puree was made from Romanesco, which is what ended up earning the first Black Jacket of the episode.
• Robyn managing to do the impossible and making a dish that got Elise eliminated during the Black Jackets Challenge. I repeat. Robyn, who was one of the most inconsistent chefs of the season, managed to make a dish that was better than Elise's dish and got the most hated contestant in the show's history eliminated! What's even more awesome is that Robyn changed proteins after the first 10 minutes (halibut to lamb loin) and while that would normally not work, she managed to make it work with marginal errors compared to Elise and Jennifer.
• When Benjamin, Michelle and Nick were named the Final 3, he had them prepare 5 dishes for their finale menus. They all were so good that he had to send them to a ranch and have them make the dishes all over again, this time for the main management people for Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, in order to decide who would move on to the finale!
• When Michelle has to choose either Barbie or Elise, she chooses Elise. Almost everybody expects Elise to be The Load if not an outright saboteur for Michelle's team. Indeed, Dana's hoping Michelle has a Plan B during dinner service. But when Michelle puts Elise on hot appetizers to head off any problems before the main courses, Elise doesn't even screw up by accident! Meanwhile, Robyn, whom Benjamin picked for his Blue Team, proves to be the ''real'' screw-up, almost single-handedly destroying Benjamin's chances of winning!
• While there's no denying that Michelle performed far better in the final service than Benjamin did, Benjamin certainly deserves kudos for turning his act around since his original season. The Benjamin that we saw reach the final this year was a world removed from the Jerkass who nearly got his head dunked in the deep fat fryer by Sous Chef Scott for speaking up at the wrong time.
• Barbie's reaction to Elise crying during the final celebration.
  Barbie: At least you're on the winning team.

Season 18 (Rookies Vs. Veterans)

• The first episode sees the two teams tied in the first challenge. Four of them, two per team, obtained perfect scores of 5 out of 5 in their dishes, and the decision is brought down to who had the best dish, Mia or Kevin. In the end, Mia clinches the victory for the Rookies in the very first challenge, and she did so by managing to beat out Kevin, who's widely considered one of the strongest finalists to not win.
• A small one, but Jose managing to bail out Gizzy on the fish. What makes it more awesome is how Gordon initially believed there was something wrong with it, but upon doing a double-take, he realizes it's perfect and sends it. It's rare to see Gordon make a mistake, and even more considering how Jose was previously nominated for his problems on fish.
• Admit it. It was quite satisfying to see Chef Ramsay rip Jen a new one when she had the gall to accuse him of trying to sabotage her on garnish during the second service. When she continued to push the envelope, he told her in no uncertain terms to get out and that after all her boasting of her skill that "she didn't have it" after all.
• In episode 4, the reward challenge was to prepare a delicious soup, with the three judges ranking the soups from one to three stars. The veterans go first and manage a total of 41 points. The rookies then surpass them with ease, in part thanks to Mia and Gizzy obtaining perfect scores of 9 out of 9, managing to achieve a total of 42 points while they still had one person whose soup hadn't been tasted, Kanae. Come Kanae's turn, her soup earned her the third perfect score of the challenge, resulting in the rookies demolishing the veterans 51 to 41.
  • As if to point out how strong the rookies are, the only three perfect scores of the challenge all came from their team.
• In episode 6, Chris's dish not only received a perfect score but also was used as the tiebreaker in favor of the red team, even beating frontrunner Mia's dish. It's especially awesome considering his inconsistency up to that point.
  • When Chris bowed out of the competition later that episode, the Red team dedicated the next service to him. They won in a landslide.
• In episode 9, the tensions caused during the previous episode's nominations don't affect the women in the slightest, as not only do they yet again win the reward challenge, but they have a near-perfect dinner service (the only mistakes being Kanae accidentally dropping two scallops and not understanding Chef Ramsay at first when he said "out in one"), with flawless communication and superb cooking, feeding not only all their tables but a good two-thirds of the red team's tables after the men get kicked out.
• With the Blue Team’s win in Episode 11, Heather has set a new record for services won by a chef in Hell’s Kitchen, with 14 (She won 8 services in Season 16, and 6 in Season 18).
• Bret's return after his sudden departure from Season 14 due to a back injury; Having failed to make the black jackets on his first run despite his competence in the kitchen, he finally gets his second chance and makes it all the way to third place, with Gordon letting him keep his long-sought-after black jacket and promising to keep in contact with him for a future opportunity should it arise.
• Ariel's journey in both Season 6 and 18 is one to behold. In her first run, she was in one of the worst red team's in the show's history (they only won one service that season), she was overshadowed by Dave and Kevin and lost her confidence when she reached the black jackets, ending up in third place. Here; she was the front runner in a lot of the challenges, helped win more services for the women, improved her leadership, and won the first black jacket along with making it to the finale, all without getting nominated once. And of course, she won this season!

Season 19 (Las Vegas)

• In episode 3, the red team decides to nominate Nikki for elimination. Not because she did anything wrong that night, but because they felt she would be a hindrance in the long run due to her lack of experience. Of course, Ramsay does not accept that and calls out the red team for a bullshit excuse for nominating Nikki, voiding her nomination in the process.
• Declan becoming only the fifth person to score 4/4 on the blind taste test.
• In episode 10, after another humiliating loss, the blue team are ready to target Marc for elimination again for screwing up on appetizers, but Cody decides to put himself up for elimination, even though he was the only one of the blue team not to commit a mistake that night, to see to it Ramsay gets rid of the former. And what happens in the end? Cody's Batman Gambit works! He manages to force Ramsay to get rid of Marc, in a satisfying move after accusations that the show only cares about ratings rather than the actual talent of the show.

Season 20 (Young Guns)

• As soul-crushing as it must have been for the blue team to see this, the red team managed one of the best starts to a season by winning the first three challenges and first two dinner services. No other team got close to that (aside from S17's blue team who won the first two services and challenges).
• Episode 5's dinner service was a massive comeback for the blue team. After losing seven in a row, it was refreshing to see them bounce back and FINALLY win something.
• The Curb-Stomp Battle the blue team dished on the red team in the Spell's Kitchen Challenge. It's very rare for one team to have all their dishes approved by Ramsay with little to no flaws.

Season 21 (Battle of the Ages)

• In the season's opener, Ramsay makes an entrance into Hell's Kitchen by driving a monster truck up a ramp and crushes Marino's car, then walks up to the contestants like nothing happened. Marino's reaction says it all.
• Sakari would manage to immediately establish himself as a front-runner with his signature dish, being labeled as very complex and managing to pull it off. Gordon would even admit he was sad he could only give it a five because it was that good.
• Episode 4 featured the blue team post-switch making a comeback by winning the team challenge and finishing dinner service with minimal problems. As an added bonus, they ended up helping the red team complete their service.
• A small one, but Sakari and Alex betting that Sakari couldn't finish a box of carrots within an hour, and Sakari actually managing to do it with a minute to spare.
• During the second round of the black jacket challenge, the five remaining chefs were tasked in remaking some of Ramsay's signature dishes from his restaurants. Alejandro would make a lobster egg yolk raviolo dish that was inspired from Ramsay's lobster ravioli, and Ramsay loved it so much that he immediately gave him a black jacket.
• Alex, just Alex. Much like Jon, he suffered through punishment after punishment due to his teammates coming up just short in challenges, yet the punishments never broke him, and he would become one of the most dominant chefs the show has had up to this point. It only makes his eventual victory that much better.

Season 22 (The American Dream)

• Episode 4 features the first time many of the chefs get points during the opening challenge, except for Jason, Atoye and Raneisha. The other entries were so good that Ramsay awarded points to most of them.
  • In the same episode, it's the first service both kitchens succeed in completing, which is considered a step up from the previous nights, where Ramsay booted all of them from the kitchen.
• Dahmere's performance in Episodes 6 and 7. After being stuck with a poorly-received signature dish and not being able to stand out for a while, those two episodes showed that he was a ridiculously talented leader. With his help, not only were the blue team able to complete service in the sixth episode, but after the blue team got kicked out in the following episode, Ramsay actually pulled him aside and named him the "Best of the Worst", a status that had not been given since Season 15, on top of praising him for showing passion, which immediately put Dahmere in winning contention. The trajectory continued afterwards, not only earning him the "Best of the Worst" status once again in Episode 10, but he also got a black jacket in Episode 12, becoming the third person in the show's history (after Season 3's Rock and Season 16's Kimberly) to get one, despite using pre-made food for his Signature Dish.
• Ryan's performance in the Last Chef Standing challenge showed him not only managed to work on his dish and everyone else's, but also managed to help the blue team win with a perfect score.
• In the first Black Jackets Challenge, just like Alejandro the previous season, Johnathan made a dish so good, Ramsay gave him a black jacket before he even finished tasting the other chefs' dishes.
• In the last Black Jackets Challenge, Ramsay has to choose between Leigh's lamb chop dish or Ryan's pasta dish on who deserved the final black jacket. Ultimately Ramsay awarded one to Leigh... and another one to Ryan. Both dishes were equally deemed worthy enough for a black jacket and made Ramsay break a rule he made earlier about there only being five black jacket chefs that year, making it the first time since Season 14 that the Black Jackets were a six-person team.
• In Episode 14, the final four chefs (Carmen, Johnathan, Ryan, and Sammi) were all tested in their ability to run the kitchen, and when all was said and done, they gave perhaps some of the best consecutive pass performances in the series, as all four chefs were incredibly vocal and took control of the kitchen, along with managing to catch most of the sabotages and/or mistakes they were given, or all of them in Ryan's case. Even Carmen, who had one of the weaker showings of leadership during the Charity Night dinner service earlier in the season, managed to deliver a solid performance when she ran the pass. With how well each of the final four commanded the kitchen, it was practically impossible to determine who would advance to the final three based on pass performances alone.
• For the past decade, whoever got the last Black Jacket would be eliminated next. This season's last Black Jacket, Ryan, managed to finally break the curse, making it all the way to the final three.
• Similar to Season 16's Ryan, Heather and Heidi, Johnathan, Ryan and Sammi this season, all of whom are aces in their own right, are notable in being the second trio of chefs in the show's history to make it to the Final Three and never be put up for elimination even once, as well as the first final three to reach the new format of the Final Menu Challenge without getting nominated!
• Ryan's journey overall. He came to America with very little money, just to work for Gordon and to live out the dream his father had left behind. Throughout the competition, he established himself as one of the top chefs to beat, even alongside other fan-favorites such as Johnathan, Sammi, and Dahmere, and came out the winner. Even more, not only did he win, but as mentioned above, he was the one who finally broke the notorious Black Jacket curse, which had been going on for over ten years.
• The fact alone that Johnathan never got to use his Punishment Pass. Not only because he has won most of the team challenges, but the only time the Blue Team lost and he could have used it, he chose to stay with his team.

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