Characters / Hells Kitchen Season 18 Rookies Vs Veterans

Main: Hell's Kitchen

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General Tropes:

• The Bus Came Back: 8 chefs from multiple seasons return!
• Informed Attribute: On both sides, as we are supposed to have a Red Team of strong rookies with impressive resumes, and a Blue Team of returning chefs. As with Season 17, both teams are inconsistent.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Unlike the previous season, three of the returning chefs are runner-ups. Bret is notable for being the only one who didn't get a Black Jacket because of his back injury.
• New Meat VS Veteran Unit: As the name implies, this season features eight new chefs in the Red Team competing against eight returning chefs from the past seasons in the Blue Team. This also makes it the first season since Season 1 that the teams were not divided by genders... at least until the end of Episode 4, when Ramsay abruptly declared the "Rookie" and "Veteran" team line-ups a failure and reset it to the Battle of the Sexes, albeit with the unique twist of a male Red Team and female Blue Team, making this the only season with the team gender colours flipped. Unsurprisingly, the two finalists this season were Mia (Rookie) and Ariel (Veteran).

Ariel Contreras-Fox

Previous Season: 6 (3rd place)

"I’m not an evil person, I swear."

Occupation: Chef de Cuisine

Age: 35

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

• The Ace: Does consistently well in many services and challenges, to the point that all the other black jacket chefs unanimously deem her a Worthy Opponent.
  • The most notable exception to this occurred in Episode 8, where she mistakenly sent up a raw halibut to Ramsay's daughter Tilly's table, instead of the properly cooked one she had actually prepared. However, this was the last straw of many mistakes from the blue team that night, and Ramsay ended up kicking them out.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As much of a Nice Girl that she is, even she has her limits. She had some very choice words for Roe's Never My Fault on the meat station, getting frustrated when Roe wouldn't own up to her mistakes.
• Black and Nerdy: While she's also half-White on her mother's side, she mentions that she is a super nerd when it comes to zombie video games.
• Boring, but Practical: While an overall strong chef on the line and in certain challenges, other contestants claim she is a bit less creative and wary of risks in challenges requiring execution of unique dishes.
  • This is especially pointed out in the finale, where Ramsay, after praising Mia's menu, criticizes almost every dish on Ariel's as under-seasoned, bland, and boring. However, this also works to her advantage, as her dishes are easier to make for her team (an advantage also utilized by Dave when she was on his team back in the finale of Season 6).
• Deadpan Snarker: Has her moments.
  Ariel: Trevor, you should have had nicotine as a flavour, you would have got that one. - on Trev's Epic Fail in the Blind Taste Test.
  Ariel: Chef Valerie just annihilated Bret's balls. - on Bret's raw dessert
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In Season 6, she was a part of one of the worst red teams in the show's history, and even after all that, she failed to qualify for the finale over Dave and Kevin. Nine years later, she returned and not only does she outlast Kevin, but gets way better, eventually culminating in her winning the season.
• Failed a Spot Check: During Tilly's Sweet 16 birthday party, Ariel accidentally sent up a raw halibut instead of the cooked one she was planning on sending up. Oh, and it was for Tilly's table, leaving an understandably pissed Ramsay to kicked the blue team out that night. Despite that flaw, and her willingness to go up for elimination, Roe and Mia were nominated over her, keeping her nomination streak to zero to the very end.
• Flawless Victory: In complete contrast to her run in Season 6., Ariel was completely dominant throughout the season, managing to avoid nomination all the way through and never once having a subpar performance. The closest she ever got to being nominated at all was during the final ten, and even then, it was mostly because Roe was trying to get out of nomination. This even extended to challenges, as she never had a dish that was even remotely bad by any stretch.
  • She joins Season 1's Michael, Season 2's Heather, Season 6's Dave, Season 7's Holli, Season 10's Christina, Season 13's La Tasha, Season 14's Meghan, and Season 16's Ryan as winners to have never been nominated. For the record she was willing to go up after the Tilly's Birthday Service, but they put up Mia instead.
• Genre Savvy: In Episode 13, Ramsay sent breakfast to the Final Five. She and Mia immediately knew what that means, and both were the only ones aware that they had to memorize and guess what was in their Eggs Benedict.
  • This perhaps helped them significantly to win the Taste It Now Make It challenge.
  • Overall, Ariel was incredibly genre savvy and this arguably was one of the key components to her winning the competition. She wasn't as in your face in confrontations like Mia and called out people when they were acting beyond belief, such as with Roe. When she notices things about other chefs like Gizzy's confidence day one might be a mistake or how Heather can't keep fucking up like this and expect to move on, which is true since both of them were eliminated for reasons relating to those issues. She played the game well, and come final service she made sure she controlled and motivated her team to success.
• History Repeats:
  • Like in Season 6, she lost a special event service.
  • Just like in Season 6, she won the Blind Taste Test.
  • Managed to win a black jacket like last time.
  • Just like in Season 6, she not only won an individual challenge, but ended up tying with somebody (in Season 6 it was with Kevin, here, it was with Mia).
  • Overall, her story is similar to Season 14/17 Michelle as both placed 3rd in their first seasons, and both won the second time they competed.
• Nice Girl: Is genuinely nice and friendly to the other chefs, helping her teammates during services and challenges (such as tasting for Mia and Kanae due to their food allergies) and is always supportive.
  • However, even she had her limits (see Beware the Nice Ones above).
  • This plays heavily in her favor in the finale, where she provides her brigade with consistent encouragement to maintain their morale. In return, her team treats her with respect and all do their damn hardest to help her win.
• Older Than She Looks: Looks almost identical to her 27 year old self from Season 6, despite now being 35. She is the fourth oldest winner to date, behind Season 12's Scott, Season 19's Kori and Season 21's Alex.
• Out of Focus: At first, she was the one member of the veterans team with the least amount of screen time during the first half of the season, mostly due to her consistency and lack of getting into drama. This gradually became subverted as her strong performances began shining through, and she was an immediate shoe-in during the Black Jackets challenge.
• Pet the Dog: After winning the reward challenge during the Final 4 and told she could bring one of the other contestants along, she decides to take Bret because he hadn't enjoyed a reward in the longest time, and that Mia should take one for the team since she had done only one punishment the whole competition. Ironically, Ariel does the same for Mia by taking Bret along, as it's pointed out by both Mia and Motto that Mia would have had a terrible time doing the punishment with Bret, and she and Motto joke around during the punishment and seem to have a pleasant time overall.
• Rage Breaking Point: The closest she got to completely losing her cool was after the service for Tilly's birthday, where Roe kept trying to dismiss her mistakes by saying she was on a station by herself and Ariel pointed out how Roe will not not go up for meat that night. She ended the conversation by angrily telling Roe to go fuck herself.
• Took a Level in Badass: While she was strong in Season 6, she was overshadowed by Dave and Kevin, along with the fact that the red team that year sucked ass in dinner services. In this season, Ariel not only lasted longer than Kevin, but she proved to be more far consistent now, helping the blue team win more challenges and services. She lampshades it to Sous Chef Jocky that last time she was not in at as she should have been, but was more determined now. This all culminated in her not only qualifying for the finale (unlike in Season 6), but she eventually won the season.
• Technician vs. Performer: The Technician. Throughout the competition, most other chefs view her as competent on the line and a good team player, but lacking in the creativity department.
  Motto: Ariel is very technical, but doesn't think outside the box as much.
  • Is this towards Mia's Performer in the finale. Whereas Ariel is strong in communicating with her team and commanding the line, but presents simpler dishes on her menu, Mia creates a more complex menu that is harder for her team to create, and also struggles with communicating and commanding her team's respect.
• Worthy Opponent: Deems Mia this as she wanted to beat the best, and wished the former luck when she wanted to move into the red team.
  • Bret, Mia and Motto all considered Ariel to be this at one time or another as well. Bret told Motto to watch out for Ariel, Mia wanted to compete against her in the finale, and Motto wanted to compete against her in one challenge because he wanted to beat the best.
• Youthful Freckles: Still prominently sports these, and to her credit, she appears to be barely a day older than her previous appearance on the show, let alone 8 years (27 then, 35 now.)

Placement: Winner

Ariel's Winner Comment - "I have been to Hell's Kitchen twice, and made it out alive, and not only alive, but I made it out a winner, and this feels incredible right now! This job is made for me. I am the person who says every single day when I go to bed; "How am I going to be better than I was yesterday?" I dedicate winning to both my parents, I'm happy to show my parents how far I've come. Everytime they see me succeed makes 'em feel happy. Mia, I have so much respect for you, I think you are so talented, and when I go to Las Vegas, if you wanna come, if I have the position for you, its yours! I would hire you in a heartbeat. To feel like you did well, and to know that you've earned something, and that you belong there, is an amazing feeling. This has been the most rewarding journey of my entire life, I have worked so hard in my career, and to just be so validated right now for everything that I have ever done, is the most satisfying feeling I have ever felt!"

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Since the first time she was here, Ariel has grown tenfold as a chef. She is fiercely talented, extremely determined and a commanding leader. I could not be more pleased to have her as my executive chef of Hell’s Kitchen in Las Vegas."

Mia Castro

Rookie

"If they were previous Hell’s Kitchen winners, I would be nervous. But they are previous Hell’s Kitchen losers."

Occupation: Private Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Miami Beach, FL

• The Ace: She has performed markedly better thus far on the red team, netting perfect scores on three reward challenges (only narrowly losing to Chris in one of them) and being the sole reason the rookies bounced back in their second service. This was noted by Christina who told her to take charge of the team. It has continued in the blue team, and overall, she always either scores a point or places amongst the highest in reward challenges, including scoring a perfect run in the Blind Taste Test, being only the fourth person in 18 seasons to achieve this. Even the narrator himself calls her the "Challenge Queen" and Ariel calls her the "Challenge Master".
  • Finally subverted in the dessert challenge, where her deconstructed apple tart earned her a low 4. But she bounced back the next challenge, becoming the second chef to receive a black jacket, after Ariel.
  • Subverted during the tableside challenge, where Ariel won and chose to take Bret on the reward trip, on the grounds that even Mia should have to suffer through a punishment once in a while (it was only her second of the season).
• Cool, but Inefficient: She builds complex dishes for her menu in the finale to emphasize her expertise in Puerto Rican cuisine, and Ramsay generously praises her menu. However, because of said menu's complexity, her team struggles more to correctly prepare them, not even recognizing some of the ingredients at first.
• Crippling Overspecialization: In challenges, she produces some of the strongest dishes so far. But come dinner services, she struggles from time to time.
  • Ultimately, in episode 8, after struggling with serving fish and chips, she received her first nomination, but ended up surviving.
  • Her being so good in challenges and being more inconsistent during services could be partly due to her being a private chef and thus possibly not having much experience working with a brigade. But to her credit, she isn't using that as an excuse, even though Bret and Heather cite this as a reason to nominate her.
• Eye Take: Ariel noted that Mia makes some ridiculous facial expressions in the kitchen, including widening her eyes whenever Chef Ramsay shows up in the kitchen.
  • Bret attempts to nominate her after the first black jacket service for the same reason, as Mia didn't respond when Bret asked for ETA on garnish.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Somewhat. She's on good terms with Ariel and Jose was happy to be on her team in the finale, but her It's All About Me attitude managed to alienate quite a few chefs, and her picks come the finale mostly stemmed from chefs she didn't have a conflict with...and even then she wound up with two chefs who outwardly disliked her in Heather and Trev.
• Genki Girl: She tends to get very giddy and excitable when going on rewards, best seen when jumping on a trampoline and getting ice cream during one of the rewards.
• Genre Blindness: Was highly, openly competitive all the way through, and vocally participated in nominations. This caused just enough minor conflicts with other contestants that she was nominated in black jackets for being "hard to work with", and it did not serve her well in the finale, by which point most of the chefs had some kind of beef with her. By contrast, Ariel and Motto cultivated respect and stayed back on nomination discussions. Even when Ariel and Motto pushed, it's when people were acting beyond belief and needed to be called out.
• Genre Savvy: In Episode 13, Ramsay sent breakfast to the Final Five. She and Ariel immediately knew what that means, and both were the only ones aware that they had to memorize and guess what was in their Eggs Benedict.
  • This perhaps helped them significantly to win the Taste It Now Make It challenge.
• Graceful Loser: After learning that she lost, she smiled as Ramsay hugged her, she pointed out how well she did and said that this wasn’t the last we’d hear from her.
• History Repeats: She was once on an episode of Chopped where she placed 2nd. Here, she placed 2nd behind Ariel.
• Hypocrite: Said in episode 8 she's a team player, right after trying to constantly blame Kanae for her lack of success that night.
• It's All About Me: Light shades of this. She's rarely outright obnoxious, but she managed to have (or at least perceive) low-level conflicts with the majority of other chefs. This came back to bite her in the ass in the finale, when her team picks were apparently forced by the need to avoid those she butted heads with, and she still ended up with two team members who openly disliked her. She shined in individual challenges but never made a particularly exemplary team member, though she was usually very consistent.
• Jerkass Ball: She's rarely outright obnoxious, espcially when compared to fellow rookie Scotley, in episode 8 after the Blue Team lost the birthday service for one of Chef Ramsay's kids, Tilly, she tried to blame Kanae for not properly setting up her station which led to some poorly cooked fish, but the latter argued against that. When Mia continued to do that in front of Ramsay, the entire team argued against that and Kanae rightfully called her out for lying. After avoiding being eliminated over Roe, who also was pretty disastrous on the meat station that night, Kanae and Mia were pretty much at each other's throats for the rest of the night, though they did bury the hatchet by the Chinese Cuisine Challenge the following episode.
• Mirror Character: She shares quite a few similarities to Season 2's Virginia in a way. They're both extremely strong in challenges and make the finals, but they're ultimately heavily out-matched in the finale against their opponent, with much of the more competent chefs not really liking either of them. However, they differ in both attitude and in their consistency in the kitchen. Virginia, despite all the accusations of favoritism, was nice and cordial towards her teammates, yet often had issues in the kitchen. Mia on the other hand was much more abrasive and it resulted in no one (aside from Jose), really wanting to be on her team in the finale, but she was far more consistent in the kitchen (although she had her own set of issues).
• Ms. Fanservice: Is a strong contender for the most attractive contestant on the show. We are even treated to her in a bikini in episodes 4 and 6. Discussed in-universe amongst Jose, Chris, and Scotley where they all talk about her butt with the camera showing her walking down the hall. She appreciates this to a degree, since it will lead to them underestimating her, but clearly the sexist comments still bother her.
• Never My Fault:
  • Her reasoning for nominating Chris after the first service was that he did not communicate with her on what was going out, even though he pointed out that she should have paid attention to Ramsay as well.
  • When she was nominated during episode 8, she tried to blame Kanae for not properly setting up her station which led to some poorly cooked fish, but the latter argued against that. When Mia continued to do that in front of Ramsay, the entire team argued against that and Kanae rightfully called her out for lying. To her credit, Mia later admitted that she did this because she didn't want to get eliminated, and she and Kanae buried the hatchet quickly enough.
  • In Episode 13, she considered Motto a nominee for getting confused on the fish orders, even though she was one of the three people responsible for causing said confusion.
• Silk Hiding Steel: During her introduction, she describes herself as this, and that people tend to underestimate her because of her appearance and smiley face. It shows late in the season with Bret, as when he argues with her, she argues right back and doesn't back down.
  • This eventually puts her at a disadvantage for the finale, as Bret and Kanae prefer to be on Ariel's team and all her teammates except for Jose are turned off by her ordering them around during prep.
• Spicy Latina: Her personality shows this, especially since she's Puerto Rican. She especially emphasizes on her roots in the finale, with her menu being based on it.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Mia got a lot of focus during the first half of the season, where it mainly focused on her doing well in challenges and interacting with her team. It was even to the extent that people genuinely believed she was going to win in the end. However, this would start to flicker out, as the chef who actually won in Ariel would start to emerge.
• Sweet Tooth: As seen during one of the rewards, where the ladies got to enjoy ice creams, Mia was beyond excited about it and tried just about every flavor available.
  • The Blind Taste Test this year involved gelato, and Mia demonstrated her finesse with sweetness by guessing all 4 gelato flavors correctly.
  • After she and Ariel earn their black jackets and are taken to a lounge area to relax and enjoy snacks and drinks, Mia wastes no time in going straight to the chocolate fountain.
• Technician vs. Performer: The Performer. Mia fares well in most challenges, labelling herself the "Challenge Queen" and being labeled the "Challenge Master" by Ariel. However, when actually on the line during services, she experiences major inconsistencies both in cooking and communicating with her team effectively.
  • Is this to Ariel's Technician in the finale. Whereas Mia struggles to communicate with her team and earn their respect, but also creates a more complex menu that Ramsay praises, Ariel creates a menu that Ramsay criticizes as boring and bland, yet manages to communicate with her team more effectively and earn their respect.
• What Were You Thinking?:
  • She sliced five raw Wellingtons in half, instead of trimming off the ends like Ramsay wanted during the fourth dinner service. She got lucky that it was a fixable mistake.
  • Her picks of her team after winning the final challenge against Ariel, choosing Roe, the lowest placing chef among contestants as the first pick and choosing lower placing chefs Trev and Jose over higher placed chefs in Bret, Kanae, Heather & Motto (the first 3 can be excused as she has some conflicts with them, but she has no filmed conflict against Motto at all). Despite this (and her personality rubbing her team the wrong way), they ended up being neck and neck against Ariel, both services are decent despite being hampered by a weak link (Roe for Mia, Bret for Ariel).
• Worthy Opponent: Deems Ariel as, by Episode 13, she wanted to face off against the former in the finale.

Placement: 2nd

Mia's Runner-Up Comment - "I'm so proud to have gotten to this place as a rookie, y'know. I knocked down everybody but one! And.. this isn't the end for me, like, this is just the beginning!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Bret Hauser

Previous Season: 14 (11th place)

"I’m so sorry chef."

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 34

Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, FL

• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Had this reaction when Jen was kicked out mid-service.
  "She was going to be the first one to go home anyways. Deuces, bitch. That's all I gotta say about that."
• Apologizes a Lot: Whenever he made a mistake, he kept apologizing to the point the others got tired of it.
  • During the first service, he forgot that he wasn't supposed to slice the lamb chops, and he kept apologizing to Ramsay while working.
  • When he decided to use his Punishment Pass, he kept telling his teammates that he intended to spy on the rookies. Nobody cared or bought that.
  • After they lost the Soup Challenge, Bret kept apologizing to the team for letting them down. Everyone was already tired of hearing it, while Roe, who got the second lowest score, wanted him to just let it go.
  • After serving a raw dessert, he apologized a lot when he went back in line, and in the same episode, he apologized to his deceased parents for serving raw fish to a pregnant woman.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Italian food. Initially subverted as this helps him get his risotto put on the menu for the entire season and earns him a punishment pass.
  • Later on, Sous Chef Christina lampshades this during the dessert challenge by quipping that he wouldn't be able to make spaghetti, and his dessert flops badly.
  • Trev attempts to nominate him for elimination for the same reason following the subsequent dinner service.
  • Mia also decides to nominate him after the Top 4 dinner service, partly for his mistakes during service, and also because of this, stating that he always stays in his comfort zone and never pushes himself or takes risks.
  • Ironically, finishes in 3rd place due to mistakes made cooking carbonara and even worse, his own risotto. And he might have finished in fourth had Motto not chosen to leave the competition in fourth instead.
  • Despite his focus on Italian food he lost points for his team due to this with things ranging from his raw balls to sticking to heavy pasta for the Sweet 16 Menu challenge. Interestingly, while many called him out for relying on Italian cuisine, no one pointed out how he failed in challenges a lot despite his insistence on keeping it Italian.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Revealed in Episode 13 that he used to be a product of his hometown, and was close to being sentenced to 30 years in prison by age 20.
• Foil: Can be considered as one to Robert from Season 5 and 6. Both are chefs who did fairly well in their original season, were forced to withdraw due to medical reasons, and were invited to return in a future season. However, whereas Robert did worse upon his return, not even making black jackets, Bret manages to make it all the way to placing third.
• Fragile Flower: He's rather prone to tears, often getting very sentimental, especially when it comes to his parents. See also Manly Tears below.
• History Repeats: Narrowly averted in Episode 8. Bret suffered a mild stressed induced heart attack, and while he required medical attention, he refused to leave medical wise again.
• Hypocrite: He grew to heavily dislike Trev due to Trev constantly downplaying or outright negating his mistakes and making them seem like no big deal, but come the black jacket dinner services, he does the exact same thing when Mia decides to nominate him for elimination in part due to the mistakes he makes during dinner services.
• Jaw Drop:
  • Had a massive one when T was eliminated, even saying that he thought she would be in the black jackets again.
  • Had roughly the same reaction to Heather comparing T to her son pouting in the toy store during the elimination pleas that episode.
  • He had another one after seeing Heather win a black jacket as he, along with everybody else, thought that Kanae would win.
• Large Ham: He often comes across as this.
• The Load: Downplayed in the finale. He was easily the weakest contestant on Ariel's team, screwing up on chicken to the point that Ramsay stepped in to yell at him. However, he managed to recover and still help Ariel secure her victory, as opposed to similar chefs from previous seasons who were replaced on their station or kicked out entirely, often costing their team the win.
• Manly Tears: Sheds these after winning the risotto challenge in Episode 2, winning both a Punishment Pass and a spot for his recipe on the Hell's Kitchen menu.
  • Repeated when he was the first chef to survive Cook For Your Life, when the red team got thrown out after he served raw salmon to a pregnant guest at the chef's table, when he earned a black jacket, and when he was eliminated.
• My Greatest Second Chance: More so than the other returning chefs because he was forced to leave due to an injured back. As such he's the only returning chef this season that did not make it to the black jackets.
  • To clinch the deal, Bret not only received his long-coveted black jacket but made it to third place, which he had a legitimate chance to accomplish in Season 14.
• N-Word Privileges: When Bret feels he lost the challenge for his team, he starts screaming and crying in the dorms, ending it by calling himself an emotional ass n-word. Youtube commenters were a bit... shocked, to say the least.
• Old Shame: In-Universe. He considers his medical exit last time "disgusting".
• Pet the Dog: Gives Chris a big hug, saying that he surprised him after Chris's dish won them a challenge.
• Tattoo as Character Type: Has gotten two tattoos on his wrists in honor of his deceased parents.
  • Later revealed that he also had tattoos of several of his favorite ingredients, including eggplant, garlic, and two unknown forms of seafood.
• Tempting Fate: After the Blue Team's loss after Tilly's Sweet 16 dinner service, and after Mia's Jerkass Ball moment during nominations, he had a feeling that the Blue Team was going to be divided and end up falling apart in the next dinner services. Unfortunately, during the following services up to the Black Jacket challenge, the Red Team continued struggling and losing challenges and services, while the Blue Team kept being consistent and winning the next services and challenges that followed.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While he was a little arrogant in the beginning, Bret wasn't being nasty towards his competition... at least until near the end of the team phase, but it was mostly toward Trev after reaching his limit with the latter's poor performances and excuses.
  • During the black jacket phase, he constantly targeted Mia as he considered her the weakest performer in services, including not communicating and making unusual facial expressions. In the final four he outright lies about his reasons for nominating Mia, saying that she made mistakes in cooking meat, despite it being shown that nothing she cooked was sent back; whereas Bret made a few mistakes in his station, including messing up his very own risotto recipe, which Mia pointed out.
• What Were You Thinking?:
  • Says this pretty much word for word regarding Jen's accusing Ramsay of sabotaging her. In the dorms, he even says he knows several people who would kill him for the opportunity to be on Hell's Kitchen.
  • This trope ends up in his direction when he used canned tomatoes for the soup challenge, getting him the lowest possible score (along with Roe).
  • At one point it's mentioned how he fits this due to him using his one-time-only Punishment Pass at the very first opportunity he could rather than saving it for later just in case, and it shows plenty when the veterans team and later the men's team continued losing reward challenges one after another, with the rewards just getting better and better, much to his chagrin.
• Worthy Opponent: Deems Ariel as one.
  Bret: She's a gangsta bitch, and she can cook.

Placement: 3rd

Bret's Elimination Comment - "Know it sucks that I didn't win, but I'm blessed to have been back in this opportunity. What brought me back was my passion. With extreme passion, comes extreme emotion. Highs and lows, you know? It was a crazy journey, I've learned so much, I can write a book about it! With the death of both my parents, I gained two angels. The reason I'm a chef is because of my parents, y'know what I'm sayin'? Y'know, I know my parents real proud of me, I know they're proud."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Chris Motto

Rookie

"I'm not going to quack under pressure."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 35

Hometown: Baton Rouge, LA

• The Ace: Went through the entire competition without a single nomination; but on his final night, he opted to quit and focus on his current life in Baton Rouge instead of going to the finals.
• Big Damn Heroes: Was this during the first black jackets service as he helped both Bret and Heather out on meat and fish respectively, and kept service from going further south.
  • Stepped in on the appetizer station during the finale after Kanae burned dumplings.
• Expy: To Jon from Season 11 as they were both the strongest cooks on their team, but did not get to enjoy the rewards due to their teammates inconsistency.
  • Also like Jon in that he never once complained about it, unlike a few other contestants who went through the same fate.
• Failed a Spot Check: Does not taste the sample plate during the Taste It Now Make It challenge. As a result, he lost the challenge because he was the only one to not realize that he needed to use Canadian bacon in addition to prosciutto.
• Farm Boy: Reveals in Episode 5 that he grew up on a farm, and had no problem doing the composting punishment.
• Formerly Fat: Episode 8 reveals that he used to be on the husky side as a teenager, which he credits as loving food too much.
• I Choose to Stay: A weird take on this trope, but Motto realized that he was needed back at Baton Rouge more than becoming Ramsay's next Executive Chef, wanting to use the lessons he learned during the competition to elevate the culinary industry there. While shocked by that, Ramsay respectfully allowed him to leave, even offering him a job should he feel he succeeded in his goal.
• Nice Guy: The most genuine of the men, always kept an upbeat and friendly attitude. Even when having issues with others, he kept a level head and was kind and considerate. During punishments he joked around and never seemed to hate it or hate his teammates for causing him to do them.
  • At the beginning of episode 4, he was noticeably absent when three of his teammates were sitting in the hot tub making comments about Mia's body.
    • The rudest he was to anyone the entire season was Trev, but by that point Trev had already burned all of his bridges and was not helping out. He still wished Trev luck wherever he ended up, before jokingly telling Trev to not make it Baton Rouge.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Decided to quit at the final four, and right before Ramsay could name the final two, as he realized that he needed to go back to Baton Rouge and help out his community.
  • However, unlike all the other chefs on the show who voluntarily quit and lost their spot as returning chefs for the finals (Joy from Season 12 and Aaron from Season 13, who made it far enough to qualify for returning at their departures), he didn't lose his spot, making him the first voluntary quitter in the show's history to do so. This might be because he quit for a selfless reason (deciding that he was needed more back home in Baton Rouge), instead of a selfish one or in a Rage Quit.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Remarks at one point that he has to be on all twelve of his toes, with the confessional line stating outright that yes, he does have twelve toes.
• Only Sane Man: To the red team as he doesn't argue without reason. When others on the team tried to make excuses or tried to assert some form of dominance on him, he never faltered and didn't believe in excuses.
• One-Steve Limit: His first name is Chris, but is going by his last name in order to avoid confusion with the other Chris.
• Suicide by Cop: When the Final Four have to decide the one person they think should not make the finale, he volunteers himself, because he was convinced that he was needed more back in Baton Rouge. Both the other chefs and Ramsay accept his decision.
• Tempting Fate: Says the above quote during the Chinese food challenge, as he was assigned to cook a duck dish. He lost the point to Ariel after leaving a raw peppercorn on the plate and received a confessional captioned "QUACKED UNDER THE PRESSURE".
• Worthy Opponent: This is why he chooses to go up against Ariel in the Chinese food challenge. He viewed Ariel as the best and wanted to beat the best. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t consider the possibility that choosing to go up against the best might result in losing.

Placement: 4th (Quit)

Motto's Elimination Comment - "I'm walking out with my head held high, I'm not feeling disappointed, this has been an incredible ride. What brought me into this competition was the opportunity to prove myself. I had some rough starts, and some shaky moments, but I've stayed true to myself the entire time I've been out here. I was adjusting and fixing as I went along, and I think I stood pretty well, y'know. A big city in the spotlight may come in the future, but right now I just need to elevate Baton Rouge. I want to go back there and just push the fuck out of that envelope."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Heather Williams

Previous Season: 16 (2nd place)

"Rookie mistake número uno!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 28

Hometown: Easton, PA

• Birds of a Feather: With Trev, both were veterans who seemed to be The Friend Nobody Likes for their teams, and Heather helped lift Trev's spirits whenever he was down and she was around.
• Boring, but Practical: None of the chefs were impressed that she kept it safe with a standard filet and lobster surf and turf dish, but it came out with fewer problems compared to Kanae's dish that had underseasoned rice and overly sweetened shrimp. This led to her winning the final black jacket.
• Catchphrase: For the first few episodes, she'd point out something the rookies failed at by saying "Rookie Mistake Número!" with the number after and a description as to why it's a problem. Once the teams changed, that faded away, probably because now the rookies and veterans thing was done. Mia used this on her during the black jacket challenge when Heather kept making obvious mistakes.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The other chefs in the Black Jacket Lounge completely deflated when she walked in, as they were hoping for Kanae to join the Black Jackets. She openly criticized them for this, and in the confession cam she told all of them off.
  "Ariel looks like her dog died."
• History Repeats:
  • Impressively, she managed to score a perfect 5 on her signature dish again like last time.
  • Played with in the special service during Episode 8. While she did win the challenge again, her team lost the service.
  • Managed to win a black jacket like last time.
    • This is the fourth season in a row where the last person to earn a black jacket was the next to be immediately eliminated.
• Hypocrite: In episode 11's dinner service, Kanae uses a spoon to break a bit into her fish to see if it's cooked on the inside, and Heather says in confessional that if Kanae can't check if her protein's properly cooked just by touch, then she shouldn't be there. This came after she overcooked some meat on her first entree ticket and during the re-fire she asked Mia to check it for her.
  • Repeated during nominations after the first black jacket service, when she accused Mia and Bret of not communicating with her. The reality is that she didn't respond to Ariel or Bret when they asked her for a time on fish, which forced Motto to take over her station; this ultimately led to her elimination.
    • Heather overall had a lot of hypocritical moments, insulting and putting down people in confessionals for their cooking or doing things like Kanae checking the protein and then brutally messing up proteins herself. This might be the reason why the other chefs wanted Kanae in black jackets and not Heather.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Heather is blunt, mean spirited, and overly negative, she seems to be close to Trev, even trying to lift his spirits up after the latter's poor performance in the Blind Taste Test. Her heart of gold really shines when thinking of her son. One notable example of her heart of gold is while she detests Mia, she still wanted to do her best for Mia and could cheer people up when they were down.
• Never My Fault: Her entire attitude in the first black jacket was this as she blamed poor communication around the kitchen for her faults on fish, despite not communicating with her team herself. During her time in black jackets and the challenge before she adopted this attitude. She gets protein she has never cooked before? Well no duh she can't cook it that well. Her hollandaise broke? The Food Gods conspired against her. Crashing and burning during service? Everyone else is not communicating.
• Old Shame (In-Universe): Her affair with Andrew back in Season 16. She even told Ramsay that they were no longer on speaking terms.
• Pet the Dog: Is this to Trev while he vents about Scotley slacking off during a punishment and his 0/4 performance on the Blind Taste Test.
• Rule of Three: She was eliminated on her third nomination.
• Too Much Information: During a punishment involving cleaning the dorms, she mentions to Bret that her 5-year-old son doesn't... aim well, so to speak.
• What Were You Thinking?: Ramsay's reaction to her preparing a potato puree in a Vitamix blender for the first black jacket challenge. This is the same mistake that cost Elise a black jacket in Season 17. Everyone vying for black jackets had this reaction to her quail dish, especially when they found out she stuffed a lemon in it and left it there!

Placement: 5th

Heather's Elimination Comment - "I never thought I'd be leaving without the executive chef position. I came out, guns blazing, and I was ready to prove a point. Coming back to Hell's Kitchen a second time, it mentally challenges you. At the end of the day, I need to show my son that you need to be the one to drive your self-esteem, and your confidence. Without a doubt, missing my son, it broke me. I thought I was indestructible, but... at the end of the day, I just want my kid!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Too many times, Heather blamed her mistakes on having a bad day. I'm not looking for apologies, I'm looking for an executive chef."

Kanae Houston

Rookie

"My husband would kill me if I didn’t have a cover up."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 25

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

• The Ace: Was never nominated once, instead getting booted in Episode 12 on the Black Jacket Challenges.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She stated in the first episode that she grew up in an area where there were shootings.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Rarely if ever swore during her time on the show.
• Graceful Loser: Took her elimination pretty well as she was proud of her accomplishments with Ramsay hoping that one day, she becomes an Executive Chef.
• Nice Girl: Is one of the nicest chefs of the season, and only gets in confrontations with other chefs (such as Mia) when she is attacked first. Even then she still manages to be relatively civil, as opposed to the open hostility that often occurs between other contestants. The angriest she seemed to get was with Mia playing the blame game, but even then she was quick to move on and move forward even when Mia did not.
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: During the rookies' third reward, Kanae gets in the pool wearing a bikini and a cover up, because her husband would be furious if she got on camera wearing only the bikini. She still shows that she has a great figure. Subverted in Episode 8 where she did not wear a cover up when the women were at a pool during a reward in Malibu.
• Speech Impediment: Has a slight lisp bordering on Fang Thpeak (her consonant "s" sounds like "th"), except without any actual fangs.
• The Heart: Quite a few of the black jackets viewed her as thus and were really excited to see her in a black jacket. When Heather opened the door, their lack of enthusiasm really showed. During her run in the competition she was always pretty nice to the other chefs, cheering on even rivals on other teams and kept an upbeat fun attitude.

Placement: 6th

Kanae's Elimination Comment - "Nothing compares to this experience, nothing I think ever will compare to this experience. It makes me so happy to know I stayed here this long! Like, I know I wanted to win it, but still its like, damn I did good! I am so proud of myself."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Trevor "Trev" McGrath

Previous Season: 8 (4th place)

"You're making SNACKS!!!"

Occupation: Lead Chef

Age: 37

Hometown: New York, NY

• Arch-Enemy: He was this with Scotley as he disliked the latter's arrogant attitude, and basically called him a douchebag.
• Butt-Monkey: Once again, Trev is this as he barely gets any respect from his teammates (especially Scotley), and has done all but one punishment since the start of the season. And like in Season 8, he brought a lot of his No-Respect Guy status upon himself with his Never My Fault tendencies and his inconsistency.
• Catchphrase: “They have a lifestyle”, something he started to use towards the middle of the competition when referring to his team. It was his way of establishing he was more dedicated than them, but he failed to prove that, especially compared to competitors like Motto. He would also start his news reporter bit with “Good morning, Hell’s Kitchen!”
• Deadpan Snarker: Most of the funniest commentaries in the interviews come from him, delivering all the sarcastic quips without missing a beat. This was also how he handled Scotley putting him down, which Scotley acknowledged a couple times by calling it "That sarcastic shit".
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • Cites gaining the respect of his team as his one of his main goals, considering his experience in Season 8. Unfortunately, he never really gained the respect of the rest of the Red Team, especially Scotley.
  • Averted with Ramsay, however, who seems to still like Trev as much as he did the last time. When Trev is eliminated, they part very amicably with good wishes, and Ramsay remarks that Trev is "the most passionate" of all the chefs to have ever come through Hell's Kitchen.
• Epic Fail:
  • Somehow managed to go a peg further down from his previous attempt in the Blind Taste Test by scoring zero out of four this season. It's worse when you remember that he was the only person to get that score this season.
  • He also helped to cost the red team the Dessert Challenge (as did Bret) by making a healthy dessert that guest judge Valerie Gordon brutally criticized.
• Expy: To Devin from Season 16. Both were chefs who struggled to gain admiration from their teams throughout their time in Hell’s Kitchen, but whereas Devin may not have deserved his No-Respect Guy status, Trev (mostly) deserved it. Coincidentally, both were eliminated in the same place (7th).
• Fire-Forged Friends: He appeared to be this with Chris, as Chris was pretty much the only chef that season who got along with him. He even admitted that after Chris's departure, it hit him pretty hard. Until Trev started failing too much for it to not be a hindrance to his team, he seemed to be this with Bret as well.
• Foreshadowing: During the signature dish challenge, he and Scotley went against one another. For extra cruel foreshadowing, Trev kept talking about how he wants the respect of his team this time and viewed as the go-to guy, after Gordon asks if Trev is able to focus on him and him alone. All of this is foreshadowing, if unintentional, for Trev's rivalry with Scotley and others.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: He went bald since his last appearance seven years prior.
• Hidden Depths: Revealed that he had a brother in the marines.
• History Repeats:
  • As with Season 8, Trev moved from the blue team into the red team.
  • In Episode 7, Trev loses the challenge for the red team by leaving the fish for the cioppino on the pan, not unlike in Season 8, where he left correctly identified carrot puree on the pan in the "Taste It Now Make It" challenge, costing him the victory.
  • As in Season 8, Trev has become the The Friend Nobody Likes on his team, to the point the only one who gets along with him is Bret — until Trev just about single-handedly wrecks the red team's chances of winning the Blind Taste Test challenge.
  • As with in Season 8 again, he lost a challenge for a special event service, but his team won the service anyway.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Even viewers who didn't like Trev agreed with him when he called Bret a "one-trick pony"; considering the fact that he didn't cook anything except Italian for the entire season's run, Trev isn't wrong.
  • When the Red Team epically bombed on charity night with the raw veal going out, Trev was held accountable for cooking the raw veal. Trev points out that it was Jose's responsibility to check the veal, regardless of who sent it out. He didn't say this in the dorms, but he did say it in confessional, saying Jose fucking screwed them. However, come nomination he does mention that two people were on veal and someone else was in charge of it.
  • He was more than right to call out Scotley for his lazy attitude during the egg punishment, where he took the eggs for said punishment and boiled them for a snack.
• Never My Fault: By the end of his run, he went to this attitude as he refused to accept responsibility for his mistakes. One example was disregarding Valerie Gordon's harsh criticism of his dessert as a "personal opinion," which greatly angered Bret as she brutally criticized his dish.
• No-Respect Guy: Trev never really got much respect whilst on the blue team, due to his mess-ups and failure to take responsibility for them. Motto even tells Trev to his face that no one can work with him.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Trevor, but he went by Trev during the show much like Season 8.
• Pet the Dog: After Mia got annoyed at the men talking about her body, Trev told her to just keep doing what she was doing and outperform them.
• Precision F-Strike: "At least I wasn't boiling fucking eggs during punishment!"
• Rage Breaking Point: After Scotley tried to make Trev look bad at elimination, Trev, who had been mostly pretty laid back save for the usual sarcastic comment, finally exploded at Scotley, telling him off for slacking off during punishment and his generally selfish attitude.
• Sanity Slippage: At the beginning of the season he was one of the most calm of the male chefs and rarely lost his cool. As the season went on, the repeated punishments and conflicts with his teammates wore on him, and he became far more argumentative and easily stressed. Episode trailers sometimes played up his ongoing breakdown and the other contestant occasionally commented on how he was losing it.
• The Scapegoat: On Charity Night, he was blamed by Jose for the raw veal saltimboccas, even though Motto was also on the station with him. Trev called Jose out on this, because regardless of who got it wrong it was still Jose's responsibility to check them before they went out.
• Shout-Out:
  Trev: Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No!
• Small Name, Big Ego: Had many instances of this. Repeatedly, he has talked a big game or passed off his mistakes onto someone else yet his cooking has left something to be desired. This played a major role in his being eliminated shortly before Black Jackets.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Was this to a huge degree during his run. Whether it was about his failure to deliver during services or challenges, his being bullied by Scotley, or his team finding him difficult to work with, he was a big focus in the season. This only increased his status as a base breaking character, with even the editing for the next episode preview focusing on Trev's snapping. This is notable because in some episodes where the preview for it had him losing it or others saying he will, he hardly lost it.
• Tempting Fate: Arrogantly brushed off the lessons as he claimed he could do them. Cue him improperly marking the Wellingtons and getting an earful from Sous Chef Jocky, then struggling to poach eggs two episodes later.
  • In challenges, if he was overly confident about his dish he failed. One notable incident is when he made a dessert dish that guest judge Valerie Gordon brutally insulted. Prior to her judging, he praised it and mentioned how much everyone loves it.
• Took a Level in Kindness: To an extent. While he still had his Jerkass moments, he whined a whole lot less, instead preferring to snark about his predicaments. It also helped that he actually had a bit of a reason to snark due to the lack of rewards he went on all season.

Placement: 7th

Trev's Elimination Comment - "I don't understand. I think Bret should be going home, not me. The guy definitely doesn't have as much passion as I do, and neither does Motto. Those guys didn't give up anything, they have a lifestyle, and I don't have a lifestyle, I just gave up my life to come back here again. Y'know, I really know that I can do this, and I don't want to do anything else with my life, so... I'm just going to keep pushing."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Trevor is one of the most passionate chefs I've ever had in Hell's Kitchen. But until he has the support of his brigade, he'll continue to be lost at sea."

Jose DeJesus

Rookie

"You're not intimidated by getting loud. You act like a little bitch in the kitchen now you want to be all fucking loud."

Occupation: Chef de Cuisine

Age: 34

Hometown: Bronx, NY

• Achilles' Heel: Seemed to have a lot of problems with the fish station, as both his nominations happened as a result of his mishaps on fish.
• Birds of a Feather: Is this with Mia, his fellow Puerto Rican. One of the few returning chefs who was actually excited to be on her team for the final dinner service.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Mentioned in Episode 5 that he used to be on the streets at a young age, but being a parent has changed his priorities.
• Epic Fail: He did not do a proper check on his veal saltimboccas before sending them out, and that led to half of them being sent back for being raw. Not only did Ramsay have to cook the refires by himself, but it pretty much cemented his elimination.
• Failed a Spot Check: The reason why so much veal were sent back for being raw. Jose failed to properly check the veal chops and it was his responsibility to do so, so Ramsay eliminated him.
• Four Is Death: Was eliminated after being nominated for the fourth time.
• Graceful Loser: Despite getting into a shouting match with Trev in the dorms before being eliminated, he handled his elimination quite well. Unlike Scotley he did not once mention Trev and said while he was disappointed (as anyone would be), he was proud of his time on the show and views it as a great learning experience.
• Out of Focus: Other than getting nominated after the first service (which was mostly Ramsay's choice as the rookies picked Scott and Chris over him), Jose didn't receive any significant screen time among the rookies... at least for the first four episodes. Afterward, Jose shows off more of his skills.
  • Ultimately averted in his last two episodes, when not only was he significantly more vocal with the rest of his team, but also his performances began to decline, with him failing to lead on the fish station in Episode 9, and failing to check his dishes on the pass during Episode 10’s charity service, causing half of the veal dishes for the red team to be returned for being raw. He was eliminated that episode.
• Papa Wolf: His family is the main reason why he decided to compete for the Executive Chef title. He and Bret once both said that their families are everything.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: During his elimination episode he was this in the dorms after the abysmal charity night service's raw veal. He kept saying Trevor needs to go because of his raw veal and fucking up in other cooking areas during the night. He was correct that Trevor has issues accepting responsibility, is somewhat lacking as a chef, and has issues with criticism legitimate or not, but the fact of the matter is that the issue was Jose's failing to check all of the veal and that was why they lost. Moreover, if Jose did check them and it turned out to be Trev's veal and they lost the service due to refiring BEFORE they went out, Jose's arguments would be much more relevant.

Placement: 8th

Jose's Elimination Comment - "Its a... disappointment, and it has been a long journey, but it was ultimately a learning experience. The lesson is, don't hold yourself back. Go, go for the stars! That's all I gotta say!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "On a night when it should have been Hell’s Kitchen giving back to some amazing charities, it was charities that ended up giving back Jose’s raw veal."

Scotley Innis

Rookie

"Stop acting like Baby Girl."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 33

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

• Arch-Enemy: He was this with Trev as he disliked the latter's attempt at leadership, basically calling him a whiny bitch and baby girl. It got so bad that the night Scotley was eliminated and both Trev and Scotley were nominated, Trev screamed at Ramsay about all of the issues he had with Scotley.
• The Big Guy: He's the tallest of the rookies.
• The Bully: Became this towards Trev. He did also bully Kanae and Mia a bit, but they handled it much better than Trev and once the teams were changed, he didn't have much of a chance to interact with them.
• Don't Celebrate Just Yet: When it looked like Trev was going to be eliminated, Scotley very clearly is shown grinning in delight...only for Trev to be sent back in line. Take a guess on who actually gets eliminated.
• Foreshadowing: Trev and Scotley competed against one another in the signature dish challenge, somehow predicting they'd be at each other their entire run on the competition together.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: It's revealed in Episode 1 that he and Gizzy knew each other before coming onto the show, working for the same company before she left.
• Jerkass: He openly commented on Mia's body and laughing when she walked into the room as he was talking about it. His argument with Trev during the elimination ceremony where he was eliminated showed how much of a bad vibe he really caused to the team in general, and being one of the factors of being nominated for elimination along with his poor performance on the wellington. That being said, when he was put on Ariel's team for the final service, he was willing to help her win despite never having worked with her before.
• Jerkass to One: Of the "Crueler to One" variant. While he was generally pretty nasty, he was espcially pretty mean to Trev. When Trev has an allergic reaction during the punishment in Episode 7, Scotley is unsympathetic and calls Trev a “baby girl”. And while one reason why he acts this way is because he thinks Trev is just trying to get out of punishment, he also acts this way because he wants to make Trev explode!
• Karma Houdini: In the Cook For Your Life challenge, Scotley broke the rules using dried lentils instead of food from the market set up, which was something Gordon called him out on. Despite this, his dish was considered better than Gizzy's, and he was allowed to advance further in the competition.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Despite cheating his way to victory in the Cook For Your Life challenge, he was eliminated two episodes later after his disastrous turn on the meat station, messing up multiple orders of Beef Wellingtons, from not cutting it properly and causing the dought to fall apart, and then, sending out undercooked and raw Wellingtons.
• Lazy Bum: Scotley is seen doing little in his final punishment, naturally annoying Trev. Scotley even uses eggs for the punishment for his own meal!
• The Leader: Tries to be this due to his lack of confidence in Mia's credentials, with mixed results such as a paper towel catching fire on the fish station and a miscommunication on the appetizer station that prompts Gizzy to erroneously enter the kitchen from tableside. Mia was thankful to be switched off his team.
• The Load: Outside of a few decent challenge performances, Scotley was often a pretty weak performer in general.
• Never My Fault: He refused to take responsibility for not communicating in the fourth dinner service as he could not multi task on both garnish and timings. The problem is that anybody who knows this show knows that garnish needs to be in sync with meat and fish entrees so...
• No Sympathy: After Trev had a flare-up due to an allergic reaction, he called him a baby in response.
• Picked Last: Was Ariel's final pick in the draft by overall, due to Heather being picked by Mia.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Sore Loser: Did not leave in the best of moods, and sarcastically wished the red team luck with Trev.

Placement: 9th

Scotley's Elimination Comment - "Trevor is a bitch, he is the weakest link. That red team is gonna fall apart now that I'm gone. Trevor, baby girl, good luck."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I really hoped that Scotley would be the Big Bad Wolf at my restaurant in Las Vegas. But after his performance tonight, I could not let him in, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin."

Rosanne "Roe" DiLeo

Previous Season: 13 (5th place)

"I'm just taking these wellies for a walk around the kitchen."

Occupation: Head Chef

Age: 36

Hometown: Dallas, TX

• Be Careful What You Wish For: This season, the Veterans had to make a new signature dish with the Rookies' ingredients. It went between letting the rookies pick who to compete against and vice-versa. Roe immediately wanted to cook against Scott because she found him incredibly annoying. Cue her overcooking and getting a middling score of a 3, barely doing any better than Scott.
• Graceful Loser: Took her elimination with some grace, and knew that all she had to do was shake Ramsay's hand before leaving. When she realizes she was eliminated instead of Mia, all she did was let out a quiet "fuck" but then kept her cool.
• Informed Attribute: During the final service, Mia praises Roe's ability as a chef. This being the same Roe who never truly shined as a competitor this season and was eliminated because she couldn't cook a single steak during Tilly's sweet 16. Then Roe failed to deliver!
• Never My Fault: When the blue team got kicked out of the kitchen, mostly due to Roe's failures with meat, she immediately went into blame shifting mode. She tried to argue in the confession cam that it was a meat heavy night, and then in the dorms she tried to say Mia and Ariel BOTH need to go up because they were working together and Roe was by herself. She then dared to say Ariel wasn't accepting responsibility. Ariel, livid, called her out and pointed out no way would Roe not go up. Roe had to weakly mumble a retort and walk away because she knew Ariel was right.
• Oh, Crap!: She visibly has this reaction when Jen starts accusing Ramsay of sabotaging her shortly before her mid-service elimination.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Rosanne, but she went by Roe during the show like in Season 13.
• Out of Focus: Like Ariel, Roe is so far the only veteran to not have received any major focus, compared to last time where her inconsistency was the main focus. She mostly got focus calling out other people, notably gushing about wanting to crush Scott and how she was not too sure about Gizzy before they did the cook for your life challenge that sent Gizzy home.
• Tempting Fate: During Tilly's birthday service, she boasted that she was strong on meat several times in the past, and was ready to kick ass again. Cue her sending up two raw steaks, and getting eliminated that night.
  • Repeated during the finale when she boasted about saving the fish station for La Tasha in season 13, only to send raw pork and overcooked fish, which helped cost Mia the win.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Season 13, Roe was easily the most inconsistent chef that got to black jackets, but from the start of this Season, she improved more, and did not have any service performances that were lackluster. But that soon became subverted during Episode 8 when she tanked on meat, and was eliminated not long after.

Placement: 10th

Roe's Elimination Comment - "I'm proud I didn't shut down, I'm proud I never gave up, but the mistakes I did make were just too severe to counteract some of the good I did tonight, and I totally own that. Chef Ramsay shook my hand, looked me in my eye, and uh, that's the best way you can go out of Hell's Kitchen."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Last time she was here, Roe was a tour de force on the meat station. But tonight, her performance left me as cold as a raw New York strip."

Elizabeth "Gizzy" Barton

Rookie

"Who's gonna be the bitch and say that this needs salt?"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

• Break the Haughty: At the start of the competition, Gizzy was cocky and incredibly confident in herself. As the season progressed however, she lost more and more of that confidence as her mistakes started to pile up, eventually resulting in her elimination.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Puts up a vegetarian dish for the risotto challenge in Episode 2; some of the other contestants believe she's lost her mind, and Gordon himself is noticeably hesitant to try it. In fact, even Gizzy herself acknowledges that it was a huge risk. However, when he does try it, he finds it to be quite delicious. While it ultimately doesn't win the challenge, the fact that it was presented to Ramsay in the first place ^note during said challenge, the sous chefs judged each dish first, with only the best four for each team being tasted by Ramsay himself, as well as it beating out two of the veterans' dishes says a lot about how good it was.
• Deadpan Snarker: As seen by her quote above. This was her biggest detriment because while she can snark it out, she can't handle any of that energy coming back even if it is justified criticism.
• Dramatic Irony: Oh there is so many Ironic moments from Gizzy, particularly when it comes to her elimination.
  • Gizzy admitted to Roe in Episode 7 that she wanted to prove to everybody that she could handle her own on a station. She was then put into an individual elimination challenge where she was eliminated for having the weakest dish of the six.
  • Gordon points out during her elimination that Scotley was her replacement at her previous job, and now he's taking her spot in the competition.
  • For extra dramatic irony, prior to her elimination, Gizzy did nothing but insult the veterans for being out of touch and old news and they would never make her lose the competition. She was right- She made herself lose.
  • To add on to that dramatic irony, most of her start on the show involved her roasting the veterans for being out of touch as chefs, but for the dish to save her life she makes a rustic old fashioned fish dish. And didn't even make it properly, the scales were still on it! That isn't even getting into the fact despite her age roasting, she was around the age of quite a few of the veterans.
  • For extra dramatic irony, a veteran would win the competition.
• Fiery Red Head: She has bright red hair and is one of the most outspoken and confident from the rookies. Surprisingly subverted in the fourth dinner service where she second-guessed herself on the lamb, leading Ramsay to urge her to speak out more. Eventually, her confidence went down even further, and it led to her elimination in the Cook For Your Life Challenge.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Gizzy started out strong with a five out of five signature dish, and immediately looked like one of the favorites to win. Unfortunately, her confidence soon fizzled out, resulting in her being eliminating not long after.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: It's revealed in Episode 1 that she and Scotley knew each other before coming onto the show, working for the same company before she left. She says in a confession cam that she is missed at that job.
• Never My Fault: In episode 4, she is reprimanded and even nominated for elimination for abandoning her tableside post to try helping Mia and Scotley on flatbreads, then says that they should've told her that they didn't need her there and to go back to her assigned post.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Elizabeth, but she goes by Gizzy. A few of the contestants were confused at first but otherwise didn't make much of a fuss about it.
• Tragic Mistake: Right before the Last Chef Standing challenge, she elected to sit out in order to work on her communication. Unfortunately for her, doing so automatically forced her to compete in the Cook For Your Life challenge, where she would end up getting eliminated.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Gizzy came into the competition extremely confident to the point of insulting the risotto that was made for them by the sous chefs by calling it bland. Ariel calls her out on this in a confessional, saying it might not be the best move especially if Gizzy can't back up that mouth of hers and that this was a terrible move on day one. Ariel would later be proven correct, Gizzy could not back up her own statements and left with her confidence shattered.

Placement: 11th

Gizzy's Elimination Comment - "The funny thing is that.. I was confident! I was confident walking into these doors and I don't know why I let my own light dim. I command and take charge, I just don't know why I couldn't show it here. I mean I held my own self back, that's... the end of the story."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I had such high hopes for Gizzy from day one, but if she doesn't truly believe in herself, then I can't believe in her either."

Torrece "T" Gregoire

Previous Season: 14 (2nd place)

"Rookies, you can't work the line, you can't burn, you're going home."

Occupation: Director of Operations Chef

Age: 34

Hometown: Draper, VA

• Arch-Enemy: Took an instant dislike to Jen, and openly questioned early on why Ramsay had deemed her worthy of being brought back. During her elimination episode, she and Heather really got into it.
• Badass Decay: Argubly one of the biggest cases. After Kevin's elimination, T was pretty much labeled as the odds on favorite due to how close she came in the finals against the practically invulnerable Meghan. However, her ego started to get in the way very quickly, and it eventually caused her to crash and burn on the meat station, resulting in her elimination.
• Expy: She shared quite a few similarities with Season 7's Benjamin. Both would start out well, with not too bad personalities. However as the season progressed, they got far more arrogant to the extent it hurt them in service. Both would also deal with communication problems, have a Never My Fault attitude, treat one member of their team particularly bad, and have one dish sit out that cost them the win in a challenge.
• History Repeats: In both her seasons, T was in a challenge where her team had an extra chef they had to sit out, but after they lost the challenge, it was revealed that the sat out chef could have won them the challenge (In Season 14, it was Michelle's alligator chili that could have scored a perfect 15, while in Season 18, it was Kanae's purple mashed potatoes that could have scored 8 points).
  • In both of these cases it was T who pushed for said dish to sit out, only to underperform herself.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: She refused to talk about her decision to have Kanae's dish sit out, which resulted in the blue team's loss.
• Never My Fault: On her final episode, she refused to communicate with Heather and was responsible for several raw and overcooked steaks that were sent back, and even argued meat wasn't that bad. She would immediately try to blame Heather for this, only for Ramsay to see through this and eliminate her.
• One-Letter Name: Still goes by her nickname "T" instead of her real name, Torrece.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: On her final night, the usually loud, boisterous, in your face, doesn't give a fuck T completely tuned Heather out and shut down. Even Gordon was surprised.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Attempted to take over the meat station from Gizzy by suggesting that the latter had a raw lamb chop (Ramsay confirmed it was perfectly cooked). Recommended for the blue team to chop Kanae's dish for the potato challenge instead of her own, a decision that backfired severely. Sent home for her refusal to accept responsibility for multiple steaks being rejected for being raw and overcooked.
• Ship Tease: In previews, it was talked up of Heather and T having one. Subverted however, as it was actually for their blowup at each other that results in their nominations.
• Sore Loser: Downplayed, but she called her elimination unfair as she felt she was better than Heather, even though she shut down when she was sinking meat that night.
• Spoiled Brat: She was essentially compared to this the night of her elimination by Heather.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Episode 6 had T nosedive into this. Not only did she not feel remorse for removing Kanae's dish for the challenge (which would have gave the blue team the win as she herself and Gizzy received 3 points), she argued with Heather during dinner service, and refused to talk to her despite being station partners. This ultimately led to her elimination.

Placement: 12th

T's Elimination Comment - "I feel that Chef Ramsay pushed me harder than anyone else, and I should've been given the opportunity to bounce back. To exit on this note, it feels very unfair."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "As a former runner-up, I expected T to come back full of swagger and skill. Sadly, she came back with double the swagger, but only a fraction of the skill."

Chris Mendonca

Rookie

"5'7 and a half, because the half does fucking matter!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 25

Hometown: Boston, MA

• Animal Lover: He mentioned during the animal reward that he loved animals growing up, and wanted to be a zoologist when he was younger.
• Casanova Wannabe: Chris early on in the competition talked about wanting to have sex with Mia (if she lost the attitude), so he's mildly this. It becomes a bit less pronounced when he winds up not being able to stand her and viewing the challenges as a way to one up her to the point he gripes about everything she does during them.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Was pretty good when it came to challenges, with his Sheppard’s pie dish even managing to break the tie against Mia's dish and net the red team their only challenge win post-switch. Unfortunately when it came to service, due to his forgetful mind, he had a very hard time keeping up with the fast pace of the kitchen.
• Despair Event Horizon: At the beginning of Episode 6, Chris started to face some anxiety and depression as the effects from his accident were starting to come back. It got to the point where, despite winning the challenge for the red team, he ultimately decided to quit.
• Forgetful Jones: Revealed during the first elimination that he had an accident that damaged his memory, hence why he had to write down cooking times during the opening night. This comes to damage him again in the third service, when a burned pork pan appears in the red team's oven. As he angrily wants to know how it got there, a flashback clip shows that Gordon explicitly told him to let the pork rest in the oven for a while, but he forgot about it immediately.
• Hidden Depths: Stated that he wanted to be a zoologist when he was younger.
• Jaw Drop: Had an epic one in Episode 3 when Chef Ramsay revealed during post-service that Jen had dared to openly accuse him of sabotaging her.
• The Load: Was definitely this in Episode 4. In the team challenge, which was otherwise a Curb-Stomp Battle in favor of the Rookies, he got the lowest possible score of three stars, the second-lowest score on his team being a seven. Then, during the actual service he completely forgot that Ramsay had left a pork chop in the oven when demonstrating how to cook it (though in fairness, Ramsay himself apparently did so too), then had major trouble timing his orders correctly, causing a ripple effect of confusion throughout the kitchen. And then it was deconstructed, as most of his shortcomings were the result of his mental health taking a downward spiral after a car accident he said prior to Season 18 that required 90% of his face to be reconstructed and resulted in memory problems for him, which resulted in Chris leaving the competition early due to his struggles.
• The Napoleon: Subverted; he's short, but also quite friendly.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: On Episode 6, Chris decided to leave the competition as he was facing personal demons from his accident nine months ago which was distracting him from the competition, which Ramsay wholeheartedly sympathized with.
• One-Steve Limit: There are two Chris' on the red team, but he is going by his first name while the other Chris is going by his last name Motto.
• Only Friend: When taking in the entire scope of the competition, he appeared to be this to Trev, as the two were never seen arguing, and their interactions were often friendly. Trev even admitted that Chris's departure hit him hard.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Played straight on the shorter part, but Zig-Zagged on the smarter part. Chris clearly has some level of skill in the kitchen, as seen by his strong signature dish and shepherd's pie dish that got the red team their only challenge win, but his memory often hindered him and caused him to make mistakes.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He left early in the competition, but he was responsible for the red team's sole win in challenges.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After five episodes of Chris having less than impressive performances in both the kitchen and challenges, he finally proved himself by making a shepherd's pie good enough to defeat Mia in challenges, and net the Red Team their first and only challenge win. Sadly, it wasn't enough to convince him from quitting that episode.
• Took a Level in Cynic: As the competition progressed, Chris found himself fearing that he was losing himself to the competition and doubting himself as a result. This would eventually result in him withdrawing from the competition.
• Weak, but Skilled: Chris wasn't necessarily a bad chef, as seen by his signature dish and the fact that he got the red team their only challenge win. However, due to his injury that impacted his memory, Chris was extremely prone to making mistakes in the kitchen.

Placement: 13th (Quit for medical reasons)

Chris' Elmination Comment - "Its easier to lie and hide behind things, but its harder to face the music, and to take yourself off an opportunity thousands have killed for. But for me, its just absolutely the right thing to do."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Kevin Cottle

Previous Season: 6 (2nd place)

"I have this chip that I just can't get rid of, and it's been eight long years I've been chewing on this."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 43

Hometown: Middletown, CT

• Badass Decay: Probably was hit with this the worst out of all the veterans. In Season 6, he was one half of one of, if not, the greatest final two in the show's history alongside Dave. This season even had him be mentioned by Trev as someone to watch out for. However, due to Kevin gaining far more success outside the show and really only coming back due to wanting redemption, it was clear his heart wasn't nearly as in this as it was back in Season 6. Add in two poor performances, and Kevin went from a potential winner to an early boot.
• Broken Ace: Out of all the returning veterans, Kevin was the one to root for upon first glance, as he put up a tremendous fight back in Season 6 against Dave, and he didn't even start badly, getting a five on his signature dish. Unfortunately, it became quickly clear that Kevin, for his success outside of the competition, was nowhere near as determined or skilled as he was back then, and he was gone quickly.
• The Dreaded: His teammate Trev warned the rookies to watch out for him, as he was cutthroat back in Season 6. Considering that Kevin scored a perfect 5 in the Signature Dish Challenge, Trev's got a point. Sadly, this did not carry over as two poor performances led to his early elimination.
• Epic Fail: His performance on meat in Episode 4 saw him send three unacceptable lamb dishes to Ramsay: the first one was over, the second one was under, and the third was raw. It got him his first nomination ever (though he was simply sent to the red team).
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: As seen above, Kevin was immediately labeled as the odds-on favorite to win the season based on how strongly he performed in his previous season alone. However, he came back with nowhere near as strong, and eventually he would be eliminated shockingly early.
• Graceful Loser: Took his elimination with grace, admitting that he was already successful outside the competition, and that he did not have the same drive that he once had eight years ago.
• History Repeats: Jen's mid-service elimination was not the first one Kevin witnessed among one of his teammates, as it also happened to Louie back in Season 6. It also wasn't the first time Kevin saw one of his teammates get unceremoniously eliminated for trying to confront Ramsay, since that also happened to Joseph.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Despite having great success after Season 6, Kevin's motivation for coming back is this trope, feeling that he should have won the competition over Dave and has been itching to go at it again. Unfortunately, unlike last time, Kevin did not repeat the success of his previous season, even getting eliminated way before the Black Jackets were a thing. He, if anything, seemed to come in with the mentality of just doing the final service and not putting in the work to get there.
• The Leader: Was this for his brief time in the competition. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to hide his shortcomings.
• Retired Badass: Revealed in Episode 3 that he used to be in the marines.
• Sore Loser: He's seriously displeased when his dish loses to Mia's in the first reward challenge. But an aversion upon his actual elimination.

Placement: 14th

Kevin's Elimination Comment - "Eight long years, I've been chewing on this. I came back for redemption. I already run several restaurants right now! So, he's right, I didn't have that fire. I'm gonna give my kids a hug and a kiss, and I'm going skiing!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Kevin was a standout in his first time in Hell's Kitchen. Unfortunately, this time around, he seemed more determined to head back to the ski slopes than to the Las Vegas Strip."

Jennifer "Jen" Gavin

Previous Season: 4 (4th place)

"You trying to clown me up in here, chef!"

Occupation: Private Concert Catering Chef

Age: 33

Hometown: Chicago, IL

• Arch-Enemy: Bret seems to be one for her as of now as she got annoyed by his boastfulness. However, she was touched by his description of his tattoos.
• Compliment Backfire: Goes off at both Ariel and T for seemingly criticizing her prepped sauce, even though both were agreeing that her sauce was better than the one they made, and they should try to match that.
• Epic Fail: Her entire second stint despite it only lasting three episodes, one being a two-parter. To start off the season, she scored a two in her rendition of Mia's signature dish — the lowest by any blue team chef. Her real down fall came in her second dinner service, where she needed Heather to bail her out on salads. It only got worse after her mashed potatoes were sent back twice. After accusing Chef Ramsay of sabotaging her, well, how much of a bigger fail can you be?
• Expy: Shades of Tavon come to mind. Besides the fact that both are African American, both claimed they were executive chefs, both struggled with basic culinary 101, both blamed everyone else, including Ramsay for their short-comings, and both were eliminated unceremoniously. However, even Tavon was able to admit during his elimination plea that he had royally screwed up, whereas Jen remained Defiant to the End.
• Foreign Cuss Word: Utters the word 'Wanker' repeatedly unbleeped throughout the first episode. This was part of her randomly pretending to be British routine during her short run in the season.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The entire Blue Team already considered her dead weight in terms of cooking; her terrible attitude was simply the icing on the cake. Needless to say, they were all glad when she was ejected.
• History Repeats:
  • Much like in Season 4, she went through a Minor Insult Meltdown over Ramsay calling her out over something (calling out the orders in his place in Season 4, under-portioning the garnish this time) in a much milder way than he'd usually chew someone out for. However, whereas in Season 4 she just spent the rest of that service in a massive sulk and complained about Ramsay in the Confession Cam segments, this time she blew up at Ramsay and accused him of sabotaging and disrespecting her, causing him to throw her out on the spot.
  • The manner of her elimination was also more than a little reminiscent of Joy's abrupt exit in Season 12. Much like what happened there, Jen made a mistake early in the service and gave Ramsay attitude over it, and when she made a similar mistake later in the service, she completely lost it, cussed out Ramsay and then left the competition, albeit via an instant elimination rather than leaving of her own accord like Joy did.
• Humiliation Conga: Her entire (short) time on the show this season was one for her. There was not a single challenge or service that went particularly well for her, culminating in her automatic elimination after failing on the garnish station (and taking it out on and blaming Ramsay of all people for it)
• Ignored Aesop: She claims to have improved her attitude since Season 4, but very quickly proved that to be completely false, starting the season immediately hostile towards her teammates and the staff, culminating in her mid-service elimination after accusing Ramsay of sabotaging her.
• Jerkass: Way back in Season 4 Jen was the prototype of the reality TV bitch. Despite promising at the start that she changed her attitude, she proved during the blue team's punishment that she has not changed after 10 years, even arguing when Sous Chef Jocky told her that she should have cleaned the mushrooms before pureeing them.
• The Load: Received a 2/5 on the signature dish challenge (the lowest Blue Team score and tied for lowest overall), incorrectly pureed mushrooms during dinner prep, served pork sauce late during the first service, overdressed salad in the Marine Corps lunch challenge, and failed to adequately serve mashed potatoes on the garnish station (considered by most chefs to be one of the easier stations) in the second service. Her mid-service elimination that night probably only hastened the inevitable.
• Never My Fault: Any mistake she committed would be either brushed aside, or she'd throw the blame back at whoever had called her out on the mistake. This led to one hell of an moment when she accused Ramsay of sabotaging her during the second dinner service. The only time she really went against this is when she admitted she judged Bret too quickly after hearing about his family situation and consoled him a little.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her real name is Jennifer, but she went by Jen during the show like in Season 4.
• Sanity Slippage: While she wasn't a morally sane person to begin with, she did appear to be somewhat confident until her last episode, where she began arguing with her teammates and Gordon Ramsay.
• Sassy Black Woman: And how doesn't even begin to describe it. Best exemplified during her argument with Ramsay.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being given the chance to come back a full ten years after her first run on the series, she is all too happy to storm out the front door after being chewed out for having (falsely) accused Ramsay of trying to sabotage her.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Claims that she does "have it" regarding her ability as a chef, and that "there's plenty of people that think so." Too bad she never displayed those skills during her time on the season.
• Tempting Fate: Early in what turned out to be her final service, Ramsay called out to her, to which she snarkily asked him what she was doing wrong. Just as Ramsay started to chew her out for her lack of respect, Jocky handed her a pan of mashed potatoes she had given him moments beforehand, and told her they were bland.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: It's hard to believe this was possible, given her already Jerkass attitude towards the end of Season 4. But at least during that season she was nice enough in the beginning, and never openly talked back or argued with Ramsay. In this season? She argues with her teammates from the get-go, and accuses Ramsay of sabotaging her during service. Given her meltdown and her leaving and the comments after her departure, it's a wonder Jen did not stab someone.
• Too Dumb to Live: Did she really think accusing Ramsay of sabotaging her would be a smart idea?
• Two First Names: Again, Jen Gavin.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: She randomly decided to do a British accent for most of her run this season. She also tried to use stereotypical British terms like "Wanker" and "Bloody Hell", but it would all vanish as quick as it came.
• What Were You Thinking?: On the receiving end of this from her entire team (in particular Bret) after openly accusing Chef Ramsay of sabotaging and unfairly disrespecting her mid-service.

Placement: 15th (Combination of mid-service ejection and quitting)

Jen's Elimination Comment - "At the end of the day, I have an entire business at home waiting on me. I've accomplished a lot of things. I'm going home wishing I would've said more. I wish I would've told him to take that blue chef jacket and stuff it so far up his ass he start coughing out blueberries, that's what the hell I wish I would've told him!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Jen accused me of sabotaging her. The truth of the matter is the only thing that sabotaged Jen tonight was her cooking."

Scott Popovic

Rookie

"Saving the best for last, that's how we roll up in here!"

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 39

Hometown: Cleveland, OH

• Epic Fail: He had some massive problems in the shrimp during opening night which included forgetting an order for them, making too much, and cooking for tableside despite it being Scotley's responsibility. This led to an unsurprising elimination.
• Expy: With his poor performance at opening night, along with cooking shrimp for tableside when he was not supposed to, you could argue that he was close to Season 8's Raj (although Scott was eliminated earlier than Raj was).
• Graceful Loser: For all of his mess-ups and going on and on about who he has worked under, he was first to admit he messed up in service and nominated himself. While Gizzy took it as if he didn't want to be here, everyone else saw it as owning up to his mistakes. In his exit speech, other than talking about the fact he owns his own restaurant, he took it fairly well.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Despite being the oldest of the rookies, having an outstanding resume, and owning his own restaurant, Scott did very poorly in the first service that led him first out.
• The Load: Easily one of the weakest rookies, and was the first one out.
• Long Speech Tea Time: When the Rookies introduced themselves, Scott went on a long tangent by listing off all the employers he worked under. This bored everybody, and Trev responded by flipping him off.

Placement: 16th

Scott's Elimination Comment - "My ego right now is totally bruised. I'm the only one out of this whole group that owns their own restaurant, closed it down to come here, and I'm the one standing out here... going home."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Scott remembers working with some of the biggest named chefs in the world. But whether they would remember him is another matter entirely. I know I won't remember him by tomorrow."