Characters / Hell's Kitchen - Seasons 1 to 3

Main: Hell's Kitchen

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Season 1

Michael Wray

"The tattoos on my knuckles say "HEAD CHEF"!"

Occupation: Professional Chef

Age: 27

Hometown: Fort Collins, Colorado

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• The Ace: Outside of a few instances in the beginning, he was one of the most consistent chefs this season. Best shown when he was moved to the Red Team in Episode 3 and helped them to start winning services. He also won while never being nominated for elimination, a feat he shares with Season 2's Heather, Season 5's Danny, Season 6's Dave, Season 7's Holli, Season 10's Christina, Season 13's La Tasha, Season 14's Meghan, Season 16's Ryan, and Season 18's Ariel.
• Actually a Good Idea: His pass sabotage on Ralph. He managed to expose some of Ralph's weak points as a leader, while managing to get away with it because Ralph should've noticed it, and Gordon actually admitted it was a clever move. Notably, this would result in the pass sabotages that would occur every season since.
• Best Friend: With Jimmy.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Was quite soft-spoken. But of all the winners in Hell's Kitchen, he was the most cutthroat of them all, not afraid to sabotage others or nominate strong competitors for elimination (back when Chef Ramsay was unable to override nominations).
• Born Lucky: Michael holds the distinction of being safe in all of the team services for the first six episodes having been on the winning team for five services and the one time he was on the losing team, he was Best Of The Worst.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Had a tendency to talk to himself; hell, he may have talked more to himself than with anybody else.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He got called out by Ramsay in the second service for simply commenting how hot it was. That's it. And Michael wasn't even complaining about it, making Ramsay completely out of line in that situation.
• Downer Ending: Several years after winning Hell's Kitchen, his daughter died, his wife divorced him, and he got addicted to drugs. He eventually managed to get clean and got remarried, but he's still having trouble finding a job.
• Flawless Victory: Not only did he win the season, he was on the winning team in all but one service, and was named the Best Of The Worst on the only service in which he was part of the losing team. To date, no other chef has reached that milestone.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Michael was notoriously cutthroat and took full advantage of the rules of the show, but he wasn't a bad guy all things considered. He still formed bonds with chefs like Jimmy and did consider him a friend, and during the final four, he was the only chef to really not take part in Elsie's sabotage, coming onto her station to help her out.
• Karma Houdini: What did he get for getting Chris eliminated and sabotaging Ralph's pass? The honor of being the first winner in the show's history.
• Knuckle Tattoos: He sported these during his time on the show, even showing them off in his confessional after winning the season. Notably, they spell out "head chef", and considering that he won, it's fitting.
• Manipulative Bastard: He had absolutely no qualms taking advantage of the rules of the season and using it to his advantage. The best examples of this came when he put Chris up for elimination instead of the far weaker Jimmy, eventually resulting in Chris's elimination, and his pass sabotage on Ralph, which exposed holes in Ralph's leadership.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Relating to above, after usually strong Chris had a particularly bad night (but not worse than Jimmy), Michael, realizing the threat Chris posed to him, nominated Chris over Jimmy. This ultimately resulted in Chris's elimination.
• Shout-Out: The main quote above is a reference to one of Sgt. Hartman's quotes in Full Metal Jacket, albeit with a spin on it.
• The Sleepless: Was often awake well into the night, and routinely gave himself a pep talk after most of his competition had already gone to bed. Despite this, he never seemed any more fatigued than the rest of the kitchen. Late in the season, he was still awake at 4am when Ramsay asked him to wake up the other contestants.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: As mentioned above, Michael tended to run the season as if it were a season of Survivor. To his credit, he was very good at using the early rules of the season to his advantage, despite it being the first season.

Placement: Winner

Michael's Winner Comment - "I feel, for the first time, I feel like I'm in control of my own future. I've proven myself to myself, and that's important. I think that I've really earned the right to be the head chef that I know that I am, and I am now, that's for sure. You know, I was blown away by Chef Ramsay's offer to either own my own restaurant or to move to London to train to become a world-class chef. You know, either way I choose, it's definitely a dream come true. Working with Chef Ramsay is an opportunity of a lifetime. You know, he's gonna enhance my credibility and reputation as a chef. So when I do open my own restaurant, I'm gonna have a much better chance of success."

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Ralph was great tonight, but Michael deserved to win because his creativity and standards are simply on another level, and I accomplished my goal of turning an unknown into a Masterchef. And that has to be the perfect way to close Hell's Kitchen, tonight. And I'm fucking out of here!"

Ralph Pagano

"Listen, if you're gonna give me lip, DON'T."

Occupation: Professional Chef

Age: 36

Hometown: Livingston, New Jersey

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• Accidental Misnaming: Kept calling Jean-Philippe "Jean-Pierre" in the final. JP told Ralph he'd punch him if he kept it up.
• Control Freak: When both teams had to create their own menus, Ralph took full control of the Blue Team's menu, ignoring Jessica and Andrew's suggestions. When both he and Andrew were nominated, the latter called him one but he argued that he was trying to help the team.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Perhaps this was the thinking behind topping his ribeye steak with grilled white peaches during the second team challenge. Gordon quickly set the record straight by saying the two simply didn't go together.
• Epic Fail: He single handily costed the Blue Team any chance of catching up in the Blind Taste Test by failing on the first two ingredients. As the Red Team was in the lead thanks to Elsie, the challenge ended prematurely. Ralph himself blamed himself for drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, and taking a cold drop (all notorious palate killers).
• Graceful Loser: Ralph had no anger towards losing to Michael in the finale as he was proud of how well he did in the competitionn to make it to the final two.
• Honor Before Reason: His choice of chefs for the final service. Rather than picking Elsie or Jimmy (who both made it to Black Jackets), he chose his former fellow Blue Team members Andrew and Wendy (who were both eliminated far earlier).
• Insane Troll Logic: This is Ralph's justification as for why he didn't choose Elsie when he had the chance. He mentioned that she was good in challenges and had a great palate, but line service hurt her. This would be all fine...except this is right after he picked Wendy for his final service, the chef who didn't know hot water boiled faster than cold water.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ralph was certainly arrogant and very controlling, but he was more than willing to help out his team the best he could. Even during the finale, he prioritized Dewberry's health over the finale, allowing him to take a break and saying that he needed it otherwise "he'd die", as well as mentioning the restaurant was not worth Dewberry's health.
• Never My Fault: It was small, but his overcontrolling nature on the menu resulted in the blue team losing the menu service, and when Ramsay asked who was responsible, he did not come clean, which was something Andrew got very mad about.
• Smug Super: Ralph was certainly arrogant about his skills, but he could back it up in the kitchen.
• The Leader: For the Blue Team, as he has the most experience in the kitchen.
• The Rival: To Andrew, as Andrew's bad attitude and Ralph's over-controlling nature often clashed.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: While Michael fell apart in a spiral of addiction after a bad divorce, Ralph actually went on to get his own TV show after Hell's Kitchen.
• This Is Reality: After Dewberry's elimination, Ralph notes that being a chef is not as glamourous as one might think. Though given that Ralph is a professional chef, he knows by experience how demanding the job can be.
• Voice-Only Cameo: In Season 10, Ramsay called Ralph up so he could give his employee Royce a pep talk after some poor performances.

Placement: 2nd

Ralph's Runner-Up Comment - "I've said it before, win, lose, or draw. I’ve got no reservations about how I performed and what I did here. I did exactly what I said I was gonna do. I did the best I could. There's no loser, you know, Michael just happened to win."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Jessica Cabo

"It sucks, I'm a little bitter!"

Occupation: Headhunter

Age: 26

Hometown: Huntington, New York

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• Badass Decay: Next to Ralph, she was the most consistent on the Blue Team, and was named Best Of The Worst twice. Once she got to the Black Jackets, however, she started making more mistakes and was nominated twice in a row. While she did regain some Badassness in her final service, she was still eliminated for only having one vote on her entrée.
• Boyish Short Hair: Jessica sports spiked hair.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Despite some faults, Jessica was a strong person on the line, hence her two Best Of The Worst positions. But when it came to making original dishes, some were not so great.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Jessica's elimination for a third placer is this as she went home on a low scoring dish she made for dinner service rather than going home for having the weakest performance on the pass like many others that came after her.
• Epic Fail: She failed to correctly guess any ingredient in the Blind Taste Test and had the misfortune of being the first chef to score a zero in that challenge. It was because of that failure that led to the blue team losing the challenge as Ralph was unable to catch up (mostly due to his problems in said challenge as stated above).
• Green-Eyed Monster: Turns into this towards Elsie after the leftover challenge, in which Elsie's "hangover special" chicken soup defeated Jessica's prettier dessert dish. Up to this point, the two had been on good terms, but after Elsie won the challenge and reward — accompanying Gordon on a cooking demonstration on Los Angeles daytime show Good Day Live — Jessica endlessly complains about getting shafted and she (along with Michael and Ralph) freeze out Elsie during the dinner service, rattling her to the point of elimination.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She put her friend Mary Ellen up against Andrew for elimination hoping he would be eliminated. When Mary Ellen was eliminated, Jessica really felt bad about her decision.
• No Social Skills: While it wasn't as bad as others, Jessica had a bad habit of getting an attitude and seeming uncaring about her mistakes.
• True Companions: With Ralph. So much so that Michael decided to screw Ralph over by picking Jessica first for his brigade. Neither of them were happy about that.
  • Also with Mary Ellen early on. Jessica was particularly upset when Mary Ellen was eliminated over Andrew.

Placement: 3rd

Jessica's Elimination Comment - "Chef Ramsay was amazing. I mean, it was such an honor to work under him. I worked hard and, you know, smart, and I think that's what helped me get this far, so no regrets at all. This was such a great experience and something I'll hold with me for the rest of my life."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Elsie Ramos

"I'm gonna kick some ass if it's the last fucking thing I'm gonna do!"

Occupation: Mother of Six

Age: 40

Hometown: Maywood, New Jersey

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• Cool Old Lady: Both the oldest female and oldest contestant of the season at age 40. To put this in perspective the second eldest female was Carolann at 33 and the oldest male was Ralph at 36. She's the only female contestant in her age range to make it to the Black Jackets and is well liked by the fans because of it.
• Genre Blind: She stated her victory of the leftover challenge on live TV, not knowing that her competition probably wasn't going to like her gloating. Then again, you really couldn't blame her that she snagged a victory under her competitions' noses.
• Girls With Mustaches: Just a little shadow, but it was there.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Cooking for six kids doesn't sound like it would measure up to a real culinary education, but it left Elsie with a high stress tolerance, a knack for improvising, and no tendency to overcomplicate dishes, all qualities that really shine in Hell's Kitchen. There's a reason she placed so high and only left when the other Black Jackets ganged up on her.
• Honor Before Reason: The three contestants above her deliberately sabotaged her efforts to win during the same episode of the leftover challenge at dinner service. Ramsay even gave her a second chance to chew them out and asked if she had the support of everyone else. Even though she knew that they ignored her, she stated that she did have said support. (while the camera notes the very guilty looks on their faces.)
• Lady of War: She's 40 years old, a Mother of Six, and doesn't look like she could fit in the world of fine dining. Doesn't stop her from getting fourth place overall, win a challenge on her own and become such a threat that Michael tried to eliminate her and Chris early on in the show. She handled this all with grace and maturity.
• Morality Pet: YMMV, but she very well could be this to Ramsay. From the start, Ramsay took note of how good she was for just a mother of six, and admitted he was surprised to see her make it all the way to the final four. It's also worth noting that Ramsay seemed to be aware that her team let Elsie fall apart on her own in her final service, and seemed pretty damn furious about it.
• Nervous Wreck: She was this in her final service, as her team's refusal to help her out resulted in her getting frazzled that night, resulting in her elimination.
• Picked Last: Surprisingly, she was Michael's last pick for the final service. Ramsay was shocked that Andrew, Jimmy, and Wendy were picked before her.
• Simple, yet Awesome: Cooking for six kids doesn't seem fancy, but her Signature Dish (turkey tacos) was commented as "Not bad" (the only other good comment came from Carolann) and she won the leftover challenge by making chicken soup by using the majority of the available ingredients.
• Skilled, but Naive: Had no formal training yet ran deep into the competition on the basis of skills learned at home, besting experienced chefs with a superior taste palate, execution of the basics, and lots of ingenuity (as a mother of six, she was best equipped to maximize the leftover challenge). However, her lack of line experience and knowledge of common dishes that came up later did her in, especially when it was down to four and her teammates no longer felt the need to assist her if necessary.
• Team Mom: Was often this to the Red Team early on. It helps that she's a mother of six kids and the oldest competitor in that season (age 40).
• Tempting Fate: After Jimmy's elimination, Elsie would state that everyone would try to win now that they were in the final four, and predicted some backstabbing. Sure enough, the very next episode saw the rest of the chefs mad at her for bragging about a challenge win on live TV, and let her sink out of spite.
• Took a Level in Badass: Was nominated Best Of The Worst in Episode 1 and helped snag multiple wins in the challenges, culminating in her winning the second Black Jacket challenge. Ramsay himself stated that he was surprised to see that she made it to the final four, and was shocked to see that she wasn't immediately picked up for the teams in the final service (she was picked second-last). The former was deconstructed with the other competitors: by the time she won that leftover challenge, everyone else wanted her gone because she just kept winning.
  • In one service, she was up for elimination along with Chris. It says something if Michael sees the Mother of Six as one of his potential rivals in the competition!
• Took a Level in Cynic: Right before the black jackets, Elsie would admit to Jessica that she was feeling homesick, and later on wanted Ralph to nominate her so she could go home, something that Michael felt was nonsense. By the next episode however, she was back to wanting to win again.
• When She Smiles: Even Ramsay notes this:
  Ramsay: Keep smiling. You light up the place when you smile.

Placement: 4th

Elsie's Elimination Comment - "I have no regrets. This has been the most exciting, hellish experience of my life. Coming into this, it was a long shot, and then I got as far as I did. I didn't win the restaurant, but I won... nonetheless."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

James "Jimmy" Casey

"I'm not about to walk out just because someone yelled at me too much."

Occupation: Purchasing Supervisor

Age: 25

Hometown: Williston Park, New York

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• Achilles' Heel: Inverted. Jimmy was weak in a lot of areas, but it seemed to be the fish station that he was somewhat consistent on, as his first two services on there didn't see him make any terrible errors. That being said, his third service on fish saw him completely disintegrate, resulting in his elimination.
• Best Friend: With Michael. Arguably, this was how he lasted as long as he did without nomination.
• Beginner's Luck: Never made a flambe before, but his attempt was good enough for him to win the first Black Jacket challenge.
• Determinator: Whatever his various other faults, he was definitely a hard worker, and when Jeff bailed out on the competition he even commented about how he'd never abandon the Red Team under any circumstances.
• Dodge the Bullet: Says this after avoiding being nominated after the first service.
• Dramatic Irony: The station he was probably the most consistent on was the fish station, as he wasn't seen making any notable mistakes. His final service however saw him on the fish station, where he completely imploded and got eliminated for it.
• Fat Idiot: Not the brightest burner on the stove, that's for sure.
• Graceful Loser: Was very gracious after his elimination and left with friendly goodbyes from everyone.
• The Load: Despite making it to fifth place, Jimmy was never an impressive chef in the kitchen due to being very mistake-prone in services. He only barely managed to avoid being worse than Dewberry and Jeff, and once those two were gone, he very quickly became the weakest link on an otherwise solid team. The only reason he managed to get as far as he did without nomination was because he was on the winning team for the most part, and the one time he was eligible to be nominated after Jeff and Dewberry were already gone, Michael sent up Chris instead of Jimmy in order to eliminate stronger competition. Once he made it to the black jackets however, Jimmy had nowhere to hide, even with Michael on his side.
• Running Gag: Jimmy often had jabs about him having dirty plates made at his expense, owing from his fifth service where he continuously brought up dirty plates.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Surprised everyone by winning the first Black Jacket challenge. Ramsay even told Jimmy that he should be proud that he made it so far when he got eliminated.
• Two First Names: Jimmy Casey

Placement: 5th

Jimmy's Elimination Comment - "I've had no regrets about coming to Hell's Kitchen. If anything, it's broadened my horizons. I'm definitely not giving up on my dream of restauranteuring. Chef Ramsay said to keep on moving forward, and that really meant a lot to me coming from him, because this is what I really want to do with my life."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Each and every one of these contestants now have to start emerging as individual talent. This is where we really start to find out who can handle the heat and who can't. Clearly tonight, Jimmy couldn't."

Andrew Bonito

"You want to pick on me? Pick on me! I don't give a shit!"

Occupation: Office Assistant

Age: 24

Hometown: Livingston, New Jersey

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• Affectionate Nickname: "Dewbs," for Dewberry.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: He tried to tape the door open after a punishment, only for Sous Chef Scott to catch him and promptly tear him a new one.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: With him clashing with pretty much everyone on his team, and being seen as a smartass by Ramsay, he became this pretty quickly. He would wind up trying to improve his attitude by the end however, and to his credit, come the finale, Ralph at the very least took notice and was more than amicable with him.
• Graceful Loser: Zig-Zagged. He did feel Ralph threw him under the bus, but he did at the very least acceptable that he wasn't very good in the kitchen.
• Heroic BSoD: Experienced this the night after surviving his second nomination. He finally realized his volatile attitude was seriously jeopardizing his chances of staying on the show. He even put a sign on his bedpost reminding him to shut up.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Most of the other contestants from this season (with the possible exception of Jeff) at least tried to get on well with each other, but not Andrew. In fact, he even mouthed off to Ramsay practically Once an Episode.
• Informed Ability: Andrew said that he had at least ten years in restaurant experience, but none of that transferred over to the kitchen.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Andrew was pretty hard to get along with all things considered, but he did genuinely have a point when calling out Ralph for forcing the halibut onto the menu that ultimately resulted in the team's loss.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He often clashed with his teammates, but he did put in genuine effort to improve himself and be a team player. Even by the time of his elimination, he didn't take the opportunity to chew out his teammates, and even gave Jessica a good-bye hug. That's not even to mention that he worked hard for Ralph, the chef who essentially threw him under the bus, and was his best chef by a long-shot.
• The Load: Despite almost making it to the black jackets, Andrew was a very poor performer in both the kitchen and in challenges. He only barely managed to avoid being worse than Dewberry and Jeff, and he got lucky when Mary-Ellen had a bad night on the appetizers station. Come the final six however, and he had nowhere to hide with both Ralph and Jessica being stronger than him, and he was booted before the black jackets.
• Never My Fault: Early on, Andrew had a pretty bad habit of not taking accountability for his shortcomings. One example saw him think it was not his fault a customer got sick after he served a terrible risotto.
• Rambunctious Italian: He's Italian, and he tends to square off with a lot of chefs.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Taking the Bullet: During the second team challenge, he presented Ralph's ribeye steak topped with grilled white peaches, which he said he thought would accompany the dish nicely even though it wasn't his idea to add the peaches. Gordon singled him out for what an inappropriate combination it proved to be.
• The Rival: To Ralph, as his bad attitude and Ralph's over-controlling nature often clashed.
• Took a Level in Badass: Throughout the season, Andrew was a relatively poor performer in the kitchen and in challenges, and his bad attitude only resulted in his team alienating him. In the final service, Andrew was without a doubt Ralph's strongest chef, which is impressive considering how much they clashed throughout the season.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the final service. Despite cutting his finger and requiring hospital attention (and even stitches), Andrew insisted on going through with the service, claiming it would be disgraceful not to and not wanting to let Ralph down.

Placement: 6th

Andrew's Elimination Comment - "Maybe I wasn’t as successful in the kitchen, but I gotta tell you, I think I had the more integrity tonight. I spoke for myself, I stood up for myself, you know, and I... I said what needed to be said."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "So we're down to the final five. These are the best of the best, and the cream is slowly rising to the top. And they all really have to start emerging as individual talent. Andrew's gone tonight because he's out of his depth, and I discovered a fake; he can't cook!"

Christopher "Chris" North

"I would rather be on a team of dishwashers... at least they know how a kitchen works."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 35

Hometown: Yorktown Heights, New York

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• Break the Haughty: Chris entered with a massive ego and believed he had a shot at winning. His arrogance, on top of being one of the few experienced chefs this season, immediately put a target on his back. Ramsay would start him out quite a bit during his time on the show.
• Butt-Monkey: Whenever he made a mistake, Ramsay came down on him much harder than any other chef this season, mostly because Chris was one of the few experienced chefs in this season — though he admittedly didn't help his cause by arguing with Ramsay when he said Chris' Signature Dish was undercooked, and then showing up ten minutes late to the first team challenge.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Chris was a strong link when it came to service, being consistently strong and showing great leadership skills on top of that. Challenge wise however, he tended to struggle even more than the untrained competitors. For example, his signature dish flopped, he wound up only having one acceptable squid out of four, and his rabbit dish was so bad that he lost a point to Wendy out of all people.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Debatably. His final service wasn't actually too bad all things considered, but since he was put up against Elsie, and had already pissed off Ramsay, it was unlikely he was going to survive. Nowadays however, what would've likely happened was that Jimmy would be sent home instead of the two of them, but back then, Ramsay was unable to override nominations.
• Jerkass to One: Chris either respected or tolerated his fellow teammates, but he most definitely disliked Jeff, as he hated his poor attitude.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Chris was very smug about his abilities and earlier on in the season didn't seem to have much of a high opinion of his team, but once he's put in a leadership position, he's shown himself to be far more compassionate than he let on, and even on occasion would encourage his team.
• The Leader: Was initially this for the Red Team as he had the most experience out of all of them. But he was dethroned by Michael in Episode 5 when the former nominated him and he got eliminated.
• Pet the Dog: After Mary-Ellen was eliminated, Chris comforted Jessica, who felt extremely guilty about putting up Mary Ellen in an attempt to get rid of Andrew.
• Sacrificial Lion: Was a pretty strong performer for the first few services, but fell victim to Michael's attempt to take out his strongest competition, and Ramsay wanting to show the other players that the contest was Serious Business. Made even more poignant because the other competitor up for elimination that very same night was Elsie.
• Smug Super: Being an executive chef, Chris came into the competition with an arrogant streak, and he could back it up fairly well.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the beginning, he was incredibly smug and arrogant about his abilities, and was often pretentious on top of it. Once he got into a leadership position however, he was more amicable and friendly with his teammates. This was subverted in his final service, where he felt he was being targeted for his Executive Chef position.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He didn't return for the final service; Wendy took his place.
• Worthy Opponent: Chris seemed to consider Michael this, as when Ramsay asked Chris who was the strongest chef on the red team, Chris acknowledged Michael's talent and ability...before saying he himself was the strongest.

Placement: 7th

Chris' Elimination Comment - "I was an executive chef. I worked real hard to get it, and I’m not ashamed of it. I belong there, I belong to be the last one standing, so Michael took the easy way out."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "When you come to the kitchen and announce that you're an executive chef, you expect a little bit more than what I've got from Chris. He's been telling the world that he has that amount of knowledge, then he should have been ten times better."

Mary-Ellen Daniels

"No. Continue talking trash about me. I like it."

Occupation: Bartender

Age: 27

Hometown: Belmont, Massachussetts

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• Achilles' Heel: Mary Ellen was fairly strong all things considered, being one of the more consistent chefs, but it was clear where she struggled most was on the appetizer station. She had problems with salad in the second episode, and in the fourth episode, she screwed up on risottos and forgot a tuna appetizer, resulting in her elimination.
• Didn't Think This Through: Her Signature Dish consisted of nothing more than sliced endives, and they weren't even cooked. While there were certainly worse received dishes than hers, Gordon was thoroughly underwhelmed by the primitive dish and didn't bother to taste it.
• Epic Fail: For the first three services she was probably the most consistently solid performer outside of the three executive chefs (Michael, Ralph and Chris) and Elsie. Then she crashed and burned spectacularly in the fourth service, doing so badly on the appetizers that Ramsay eliminated her out over Andrew, who had just had his fourth bad service in a row.
• Failed a Spot Check: In Episode 4, she ended up forgetting a tuna appetizer for a ticket, which led Ramsay to force a restart on said ticket. This was one of the few reasons why she was eliminated.
• For Want Of A Nail: Despite being up against Andrew in the nominations in Episode 4 and seemingly having a good chance to survive over the latter due to being nominated once over the latter's two, Ramsay eliminated her for abysmal performance on the appetizers.
• Out of Focus: She got the least attention of anyone from this season's Blue Team — and, aside from Carolann, the least of any contestant overall from this season — only really standing out during an argument with Andrew in Episode 2, and then with her abysmal performance on the appetizers in Episode 4, which got her eliminated.
• True Companions: With Jessica.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She didn't return for the final service; Dewberry took her place.

Placement: 8th

Mary Ellen's Elimination Comment - "I think that Chef Ramsay's decision tonight was the wrong decision. I don't believe I was the weak link on the team tonight. I think, as shown in the past, it was Andrew that was the weak link. I think that Andrew will be joining me shortly."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Mary Ellen has left Hell's Kitchen because of her inconsistency. What the rest of the team should understand is that it is very crucial to get better and more consistent. That didn't happen with Mary Ellen."

Wendy Liu

"I thought that cold water was supposed to boil faster than hot water."

Occupation: Account Manager

Age: 32

Hometown: Millburn, New Jersey

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• Artistic License – Physics: In the third service Wendy was caught boiling cold water, believing it would boil faster. What she failed to realize is that warm water boils faster. Ramsay was completely dismayed when he heard that.
• Asian Airhead: Her inability to comprehend how water boils was certainly the biggest example of this, but she made a ton of mistakes while on the show, and Ramsay even said working with her was painful. She only lasted as long as she did because she was on the winning team in the first two services.
• Deaf Composer: She is a vegetarian, but in this case, it worked against her as her inability to cook meat led her to serve a food critic an overcooked portion.
• The Ditz: See above.
• Genre Blind: Somehow it never occurred to her that she might be called upon to cook meat at some point. As a result, she never bothered learning how to cook it (since she doesn't eat it in real-life either) and predictably crashed and burned as soon as she went on the meat station.
• Informed Ability: Early on in the season, Wendy talked herself up as being a perfectionist, but she never once had a good performance.
• The Load: By far the weakest member of the Blue Team as her inexperience showed in the kitchen. While she got lucky in the first two episodes as the Blue Team won those services, she was the first out when they finally lost a service.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She felt this way about her elimination, feeling absolutely crushed about her performance.
• Nice Girl: For as bad as she was in the kitchen, she was still friendly towards her teammates, even being the one to comfort Andrew when he felt like he let the team down.
• The Perfectionist: According to herself, she was this. Unfortunately, she was so terrible that she was anything but.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: About the only thing she did right in the competition was make a fish entree during the five course meal challenge that was deemed "not bad".

Placement: 9th

Wendy's Elimination Comment - "It’s been an absolutely horrible night, nothing went right. I feel like I let myself down, I let the team down, and I let Chef down. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get further. I think that’s really the biggest emotion I’m feeling right now."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Wendy, well, you know, it's about time I put you out of your misery."

Jeff LaPoff

"If you don't like me, I don't know what to tell you. You're an asshole!"

Occupation: Finance Manager

Age: 28

Hometown: Orange, New Jersey

---

• Arch-Enemy: While Jeff was disliked by pretty much everyone, he had a particularly antagonistic relationship with Chris. Chris was the one to call him out directly for his poor attitude.
• Crazy Enough to Work: He pushed for a soup that he makes for the 5-course challenge, much to the concern of the Red Team. It actually scored them a point.
• Dodge the Bullet: Ramsay says this to Jeff after Carolann is eliminated. Considering how terribly he did as a waiter, he very much barely avoided being the first eliminated.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Was often butting heads with his teammates due to his poor attitude, and they often second-guessed his ability in the kitchen. When he quit halfway through service in Episode 3 after a row with Gordon, every single member of the Red Team was pissed and called him out on his unprofessional conduct.
• Law of Disproportionate Response: While it can be debated whether his Rage Quit falls under this, one thing that definitely counts is his reaction to sous chef Maryann's giving him a pretty mild rebuke for letting Michael do all the work on his station. Jeff reacted by blowing up and dropping a Cluster F-Bomb at her, forcing Ramsay to jump in and calm things down.
• The Load: Easily one of the weaker chefs of the season, with him being a constant mess in both the kitchen and service, and even failing to do a good job as a waiter. It's possible he could've been sent home earlier had Dewberry nearly walked out on his team.
• The Napoleon: One of the shortest contestants (and the shortest man) of this season, but he had a pretty nasty temper. Initially this seemed to be because he was suffering from a kidney stone, but if anything it became worse after the stone passed out of his system.
• Never My Fault: The first of many chefs to try and blame their shortcomings on their inexperience, which was all the more glaring considering that 8 out of this season's 12 competitors had no professional experience and yet Jeff was the only one to pull that card.
• Noodle Incident: Though he's last seen on-camera pulling a Screw This, I'm Outta Here and storming out of the kitchen, a post-credits caption states that "Jeff LaPoff left the show because of an injury". While it was long rumored that he got into a fight with Ramsay in the corridor outside the kitchen, a former crew member strongly implied in a Quora post that Jeff was made to wait around until the service ended and Wendy had been eliminated in the normal manner, then decided to confront Ramsay one last time... only to lose his footing on a flight of stairs and do a Face Plant.
• Old Shame: Nowadays he's an insurance salesman (and before that, had been a used car dealer) and refuses to talk about his time on Hell's Kitchen in any way.
• Rage Quit: Stormed out of the competition after calling Ramsay an "asshole". As such, he was the first contestant of the series to exit the competition on his own accord.
• Weak, but Skilled: Jeff was downright terrible in the kitchen, and he didn't help matters at all with his attitude. However, on a few occasions he did actually have some food sent up that was praised or at the very least, had some qualities to them. One example saw his lobster ravioli be praised by critics (ironically enough, the service he ended up quitting in).
• 0% Approval Rating: He was assigned to wait tables in the first service... and not one of them said that he had been a good waiter. Two-thirds of them walked out.

Placement: 10th (Quit)

Jeff's Elimination Comment - "Send my ass home, I've had enough of this-" *microphone cuts out*

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "The third night of Hell's Kitchen was shocking. Really bad. I'm hoping we step up a gear, we raise our game, and we start coming together as a proper restaurant. Jeff, well, I had to laugh at the end when he called me an asshole, I've been called far worse than that."

(Jeffery) Dewberry

"I'd rather you would be saying I was Brad Pitt's wife!"

Occupation: Pastry Chef

Age: 33

Hometown: Stockbridge, Georgia

---

• Camp Gay: Not that he was around long, but he had a high voice and somewaht flamboyant demeanor.
• Crippling Overspecialization: For his brief time, the one thing he knew he could do well was spaghetti, as seen in his second service. The moment he was put on the meat station, he cracked under the pressure.
• Graceful Loser: Dewberry took his elimination very well, admitting that he was not justified walking out on his team.
• Last-Name Basis: His first name is Jeff and went by his surname in order to avoid confusion with Jeff LaPoff.
• My God, What Have I Done?: It was clear that he seriously regretted his near-quit, as seen in his elimination comment.
• Nice Guy: Despite his near-quit in the second service, Dewberry was easily one of the friendlier chefs of the season.
• One-Steve Limit: His real name is Jeffrey, but he went by Dewberry during the show, mainly to avoid confusion with Jeff.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: See above.
• Picked Last: For teams in the final service, being left on Ralph's team. He knew that there was no way he wasn't getting picked last, since he had been eliminated so early on and was only back because Chris, Mary-Ellen, and Jeff hadn't returned. Despite not having worked with either of the finalists before, he was determined to do his best and redeem himself.
• Plucky Comic Relief: He got some good lines during his short stay in the competition, and Elsie mentions that she'll miss his sense of humor after his elimination.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Almost walked out of the second service, but came to his senses and went back into the kitchen. He still got eliminated at the end of the episode anyway, though unlike Jeff he had the good grace to admit that the situation was entirely his own fault.
• Skilled, but Naive: Despite being one of only four contestants from this season (along with Michael, Ralph, and Chris) who actually had professional cooking experience, he was completely unable to handle working on the line.
• Tragic Mistake: Dewberry actually got off to a pretty good start in his elimination episode, performing well in the squid-cleaning challenge and having a good start during dinner service. However, threatening to walk off the line caused Ramsay to lose all faith in him, leading to his elimination.

Placement: 11th

Dewberry's Elimination Comment: "Well, what happened happened. I mean, I can't say that I didn't deserve it. I kind of felt like I was making a comeback, but I was not justified in walking out on my team."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I'm looking for someone who can weather the storm, inspire individuals, stand as a great leader. That, clearly, is not Dewberry."

Carolann Valentino

"You should never underestimate someone who's inexperienced. They may surprise you."

Occupation: Server's Assistant

Age: 33

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

---

• Bystander Syndrome: Didn't do anything in the first service and Ramsay chews her out for not helping the Red Team out. In fact, this is what got Carolann eliminated: the only other nomination was Dewberry, because he did no cooking for an hour, but when Dewberry did cook he at least tried to help the Red Team. Ramsay said that this competition was about teams, and Carolann couldn't handle that.
• Underestimating Badassery: As her quote above notes, she surprised everyone with her chicken parmesan and had things going out for her... if only she didn't tank service by doing nothing.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Got glowing reviews for her chicken parmesan (the only other good review were from Elsie's turkey tacos)... but did horrible on the dinner service and was eliminated.

Placement: 12th

Carolann's Elimination Comment - "I am very angry because when you're presented with an opportunity to do something great, and then you see that disappear, it's... very disappointing."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Some can handle it, some can't. I'm not interested in the ones who can't."

Season 2

Heather West

Also Red Team sous chef, Season 6

"Being a woman in the kitchen, you gotta hold your own! My name's not Babe, it's not Hon', it's not Honey, it's Heather!"

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 25

Hometown: Port Jefferson, New York

---

• Always Someone Better: During the Black Jacket phase of the competition she frequently got despondent about how she always poured her heart and soul into what she was making during the challenges, and yet Virginia effortlessly blew her out of the water each time. Averted when it really mattered, however, as Heather defeated Virginia in the final service.
• Badass Adorable: Her quote up above shows this well.
• Berserk Button:
  • As Garret found out, making any sexist comments in her direction will immediately get you on her bad side.
  • For the most part she was a nice girl. But after a while, Virginia brought out a nasty side of hers since Heather felt like Virginia was treated unfairly well. She lightened up a lot on this when they moved into the finals together however.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Her chocolate and raspberry empanadas in the Signature Dish Challenge. Despite Gordon's initial reluctance, it proved to be one of the few dishes he enjoyed in the challenge.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Was one of the stronger chefs during service. Challenge-wise however, she tended to struggle quite a bit.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Arguably, Heather had a much better performance than Virginia did in the final service as she led her kitchen strongly, kept her team in line, had good pacing with her dishes being sent out, and if there was a mistake, she would quickly order a substitute dish. It's thanks to this that gave her the win.
• The Determinator: Few chefs in the show's history have ever been as determined and assertive as she was in the kitchen. One of the best examples of this was when she severely burned her hand, but continued to give the Red Team instructions before she was sent away to the medic.
• Experimented in College: As late as her spell as Sous Chef in Season 6, she identified as a lesbian. She later began a relationship with and married a man, and now identifies as strictly heterosexual.
• Flawless Victory: Just like Michael in Season 1 before her, she won her season without any nominations whatsoever, and was even named "Best of the Worst" twice.
• Genki Girl: Was this at times outside of the kitchen. But during dinner service, she was the most serious cook by far.
• Glass Cannon: Despite lacking no nominations, Heather herself was still fairly prone to making mistakes in the kitchen. The best example of this came in the fifth episode, where she screwed up pretty massively on both the appetizers and meat station, the latter of which resulted in the blue team getting kicked out. Thankfully, the blue team did win the service, but had they not, it's very likely Heather would've gotten the boot.
• The Heroine: She always emerged as a leader regardless of what team she was on, and was the best at keeping everybody working in concert.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Her friendship with Keith. She was sort of short and Keith was very tall. The top of her head barely reached his shoulders.
• Jerkass to One: Heather was pretty nice to her team for the most part, and the few times she had issues it was usually because of their attitude. However she particularly had it out for Virginia, who, like Keith and Sara believed, was getting favorable treatment from Ramsay. This is however subverted come the finale, as after Heather wins, she hugs Virginia with no sign of bad blood between the two.
• One of the Guys: Although there was much trepidation from all sides at first, she quickly became this after moving to the Blue Team when her leadership and cooking skills were proven more than evidently clear.
• Out of Focus: Season 6 had her return as a sous chef (to fill the void left by Gloria) and while the show had a great opportunity to hype her return, she tended to fade quietly into the background, probably because the producers already knew that Andi would be replacing her for Season 7. That said, she was still a lot more animated in her role than Gloria had been, and quite often jumped onto the line to help out when the Red Team was struggling.
• Power Trio: With Keith and Garrett after she moved to the Blue Team.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Both She and Rachel delivered a decisive one to Tom in the fourth episode.
• Technician Versus Performer: The technician to Virginia's performer. Heather is a strong cook on the line and was able to bounce back from any mistake she made. However, her dishes, while not terrible, could not match Virginia's creativity.

Placement: Winner

Heather's Winner Comment - "I'm so happy. I cannot believe my luck. That was, feels like a dream! I get to live my dream! My life has just changed drastically."

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Heather won tonight because of her determination. She stuck to what she knew best and she controlled her kitchen from start to finish. Heather clearly has great leadership qualities and this for a twenty-five year old cook is a phenomenon. This woman is going to be a big success."

Virginia Dalbeck

"I'm trying my hardest. Why does he have to be so harsh? Harsh, harsh.'"

Occupation: Salad Chef

Age: 25

Hometown: New York, New York

---

• Cassandra Truth: She managed to win the Taste It Now Make It Challenge with her palate alone, but Heather and Keith accused her of cheating due to buying a Ramsay cookbook in a previous reward despite her arguments. Years after Season 2 aired, Virginia confirmed in an interview that she was telling the truth as production confiscated the cookbook after she came back to Hell's Kitchen, meaning she literally had no idea what the dish was for the following challenge.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Did outstandingly well in the challenges, winning or being on the winning team in all but two of them, and losing by the narrowest of margins in the two occasions that she didn't win. Unfortunately, with one or two exceptions, she was never able to carry that form through to the actual services.
• The Ditz: Lots of examples throughout the season. The most blatant one was probably the way she chose and debriefed her team in the finale. Read Insane Troll Logic for more details.
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: Ramsay started talking her up, claiming she was a strong chef who deserved to be in the final two. Based on the challenges alone, sure. But the vast majority of her dinner services typically went terribly for her.
• Fatal Flaw: Virginia was strong in challenges, and could pull off a good service if she put her mind to it, but what ultimately sunk her was her lack of foresight. Virginia had a bad habit of coming off as insensitive at best, and couple that with her usual poor performances and the belief that Ramsay was favoring her, that meant she was unpopular among her fellow contestants. Perhaps the best example of this came during the finale, where she selected Keith, Giacomo, and Tom, with the idea that her victory would be even more impressive leading them to victory, completely forgetting that now Heather had three genuinely strong chefs on her team in the finale. To make matters worse, she bluntly stated that Giacomo and Tom sucked and Keith was meant to pick up the slack, leaving them demotivated from the get-go and forcing Virginia to bribe them to work for her.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Became this come the black jackets. Virginia wasn't mean by any stretch, but due to perceived favoritism by Ramsay, as well as her being insensitive on occasion, she became heavily disliked by her fellow competition.
• Genki Girl: She often came off as this, particularly when she was praised.
• Glass Cannon: Probably the nicest way to describe her performance in the kitchen. Virginia clearly could make solid dishes, and was able to bounce back from mistakes, which was likely what spared her multiple times. Along with that, based on the final seven service, she was capable of doing well in the kitchen if she put her mind to it. Unfortunately, her mistakes often wound up being numerous, and this was especially prevalent during the final four service.
• Graceful Loser: Despite her very unfriendly relationship with Heather, she gave her a warm congratulations on winning the competition which Heather gladly accepted.
• Informed Ability: Ramsay constantly praised her for being a great chef. Sure, while was a strong performer in challenges, she was very common nominee for elimination.
• Innocently Insensitive: Two moments stand out
  • The time she gave out gag gifts to everyone after her shopping spree reward, making everyone resent her even more.
  • The time in the finale she told her brigade that she wanted to have the weak chefs on her team to prove she could turn them around. Unfortunately, her wording was not great and she ended up alienating most of them.
• Insane Troll Logic: Picking a team of weak cooks so that you'll look all the more awesome when you lead them to victory? Okay, there's a certain logic to that idea, even if it does seem like an insanely risky strategy. Telling the cooks in question that they're weak (and the one competent guy that he's there to pick up the slack if they screw up)? Really not such a good idea.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Pretty much her finale. Yeah, there was some logic behind it, but she struggled far more when attempting to get them to bounce back compared to Heather.
• Ms. Fanservice: Considered one of the hottest female contestants to ever compete on the show. Keith even accused Ramsey of “having a hard-on” for her.
• Nice Girl: While she often was accused of being favorited, she was never malicious or rubbed her skills in others faces. Even after losing to Heather, she was totally fine with it and even said that Heather was better than her in every way.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When she came back from a $1000 shopping spree, she gave her rivals gag gifts. She gave Sara a porcelain cow (in reference to how often Ramsay called her a cow), Heather a glove to use for dealing with hot pans/water (she burned herself early in the season) and Keith a tool to use for shucking crabs (which was the punishment for that day). She meant it in good humor, but instead of finding it funny, they found it insulting. She probably would have offended them less if she didn't get them anything at all.
• No Social Skills: She often ended up inadvertently insulting people, like the example for No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. She had good intentions, but her rivals felt like it was a slap in the face, instead of a well-meaning gift.
• Squee: Some of her facial expressions could give this effect.
• Technician Versus Performer: The performer to Heather's technician. Virginia could produce well made dishes thanks to her palate, but she was in over her head come services compared to Heather.
• Too Dumb to Live: As mentioned under Insane Troll Logic, she picked a team of weak cooks (and Keith), thinking it would be all the more awesome leading them to victory. While there is a logic to that idea, it unfortunately never seemed to cross her mind that by taking the weaker chefs, that only left her rival, Heather, with the best cooks.
• Took a Level in Badass: As stated above, she was weak during services. Flash forward to a few years later when she returns to Hell's Kitchen in Season 10 for one service in a team made of past runner ups. It was clear as day that her ability to work in the kitchen had grown exponentially.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Had a good palate and actually could cook rather well; but when it came to dinner service, she just couldn't crank out dishes well.

Placement: 2nd

Virginia's Runner-Up Comment - "I feel totally happy for Heather. I trust Chef Ramsay's decision and, I know one day, I'll be as good as Heather."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Keith Greene^†On August 15th, 2012, he tragically died in a drowning accident.

"I'm a pimp, son, what can you expect? I had to get rid of the dudes!"

Occupation: Chef & Bartender

Age: 28

Hometown: Southampton, New York

---

• Achilles' Heel: Was one of the most talented cooks this season, but his leadership skills were weak on the pass and led to his elimination.
• Catchphrase: Variations of "I killed it"
• Fatal Flaw: A lack of leadership skills. Throughout the season, Ramsay saw potential in him, and tried to push him into becoming a leader for the blue team. Ramsay's efforts fell flat and Keith shrugged it off as much as possible. In one instance, he even talked argued with Gordon Ramsay
• Gonk: He was a goofy-looking man with a silly voice. He was aware of this, and said he wanted to win to prove that someone who looks and sounds like him can be a master.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his "wigger" attitude and appearance, he was actually a very strong chef who cranked out high-quality food.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He became a great friend and ally to Heather, and was twice as wide and a head taller than her.
• Incompletely Trained: Ramsay outright tells him on multiple occasions that he's a great cook, but his talent hasn't been properly nurtured.
• The Lancer: He was a great cook in his own right, though Heather was that bit better. The two had great synergy, and often supported and backed each other up, but Keith didn't have Heather's leadership qualities.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Regretted almost immediately choosing Virginia instead of Garrett to come with him on his reward for winning the first Black Jacket challenge, even though he and Garrett made a pact to share rewards with each other. Even for him, he felt like he crossed a line and felt terrible.
• Power Trio: With Heather and Garrett.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: As seen during the Signature Dish Challenge.
• Sore Loser: Gave a rather nasty What the Hell, Hero? response to Ramsay eliminating him from the final two over Virginia along with a Death Glare that made it look like he wanted to rough Gordon up. Unlike Joseph from Season 6, he did not go off, and this motivated his friend Heather to win (Keith's anger was also shared by more than a handful of viewers).
• Sour Supporter: He was not happy to be on Virginia's team in the finale as he wanted to support Heather instead (especially after what happened in the previous episode that got him eliminated).
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Wasn't actually too bad for most of the season (aside from his open dislike of Virginia, which he wasn't alone in). But when he was eliminated, he took a very sharp turn for the worse, openly accusing Ramsay of having a "hard on" for Virginia (which some viewers agreed with him on while Ramsay didn't, prompting the latter to defend his decision). He continued this streak when he said he'd only work for Virginia if she paid him after winning. A Graceful Loser, he was not.
• Worthy Opponent: To Heather. They had a very tight knit friendship with each other and looked forward to battling it out together in the finale. Keith even lampshades it during a reward by pointing out that HK could easily stand for Heather vs Keith. Keith was eliminated, however, and Virginia faced off Heather in the finale instead.

Placement: 3rd

Keith's Elimination Comment - "I definitely deserve my own restaurant. The whole time I've been here I did nothing but kill it! He doesn't like my personality, so fuck him, because I cook better than all those bitches! He didn't like my personality, he didn't like K-Grease. I tried to hide him, but he fucking got out. So it's bullshit!"

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "You've got two choices: you run the team or the team runs you, and sadly, the team ran Keith. If Keith can only lose the attitude, underneath all that there's one talented, talented cook."

Sara Horowitz

"It's not about making friends, it's about winning that prize."

Occupation: Deli Manager

Age: 31

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

---

• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Virginia. Initially it was one-sided, as Virginia was okay with Sara, but Sara definitely was not fond of Virginia and tried to get rid of her in the fourth service (first by sabotaging her and making her look like a liar in the service, then by pushing for Virginia to be nominated over Rachel). After that, while the two were generally able to work together in the kitchen, they almost never spoke to each other outside of service, and made no secret of the fact that they didn't like each other. This would become Laser-Guided Karma when the two were put up for elimination after the second Black Jacket service. Though Virginia wasn't willing to stay on at first, she changed her mind when Ramsay said that doing so would lead to Sara's elimination.
  • She was also one to Rachel early on as the latter did not like how she was treating the competition lightly along with her poor attitude. Thankfully, the two agreed to keep their dislikes out of the kitchen for Heather's sake in the finale.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She was not above screwing over her teammates at any chance she got.
• Fatal Flaw: Sara was a solid enough chef throughout the season, and had some level of leadership ability. However, what ultimately screwed her was her inability to have decorum in the kitchen. Many times when she was called out for her mistakes, Sara would either react inappropriately or get an attitude with Chef Ramsay, causing her to gradually lose respect with him throughout the season.
• Gasshole: In a photo shoot reward, she farted in Ramsay's direction.
• Jerkass: Sara had a poor attitude this season. In addition to arguing with the Red Team, she also had a couple of spats with Ramsay.
• The Load: Sara was the weakest link to Heather's team as most of the dishes she made got sent back for being salty or cold. Still, it wasn't bad enough for Heather to lose over Virginia.
• Manipulative Bitch: Successfully screwed over her teammates on a number of occasions.
• Smug Snake: Sara really liked talking smack about people and boasting how good she was at cooking.
• Womanchild: Has a few shades of this. Much of her initial feud with Rachel stemmed from how unserious Sara was in the kitchen. Additionally, Sara had attitude problems that often dragged into service where she wouldn't be as serious about mistakes, and even in the first episode, she cheered when an appetizer was finally sent out.

Placement: 4th

Sara's Elimination Comment - "I can't be angry at Virginia. It's been one hell of a trip. I came here thinking that I had the potential to win the prize, and I’m worried that maybe I'm just really not good enough to do great things."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Sara's not good enough, as a cook. She made so many simple mistakes, she definitely didn't merit her own restaurant. Hello sweetheart, kiss my grits."

Garrett Telle

"If I think Chef Ramsay's being an asshole to be an asshole, I'll be an asshole myself!"

Occupation: Former Prison Chef

Age: 27

Hometown: Cedar Park, Texas

---

• The Big Guy: When the Blue Team was down to three, Garrett was a little smaller than Keith, but by far the most intimidating and dangerous-looking, while also being the least good at cooking.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Drops one after Keith decided to take Virginia with him to Vegas, even though Keith said the previous night that if he won, he'd pick Garrett to share the reward with him.
• Deadpan Snarker: Had his moments.
• Determinator: Every time Ramsay yelled at him just made him more resolute to win; Ramsay himself even noted this trait when Garrett was finally eliminated.
  Garrett: "All that did for me when Chef Ramsay said "Do you want to go back in jail?" was motivate me even more. I'm gonna bust my ass."
• Flipping the Bird: He unintentionally did this to Ramsay after the Red Team won the final team challenge, as he was flipping off the women and didn't know Ramsay was with them. Ramsay chewed him out for it later in the same episode.
• Jerkass: A relatively mild example, as compared to chefs who came later he didn't seem as bad in comparison, but Garrett could be incredibly abrasive and sarcastic on occasion.
• Picked Last: Ended up on Heather's team as the last pick, though he didn't really care at all about this, beyond finding it a little odd that Tom and Giacomo were picked ahead of him (not knowing that Virginia picked those two because they were weaker than he was).
• Power Trio: With Heather and Keith.
• Reformed Criminal: Stole checks, which landed him in prison for a few years. While there, he learned to cook, and ultimately proved one of the more level-headed contestants this season. When Heather expressed that she felt uncomfortable when he got angry, he assured her that he would never hit someone. He used to do things like that in the past, but went into a youth anger program and decided to never lay a hand on someone ever again.
  • And if his quote above is anything to go by, Garrett did not want to go back to jail.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: During his elimination plea, he promised that his next performance would be his best. As it turned out, his next service would see his best performance on the show... but it was as a member of Heather's brigade in the finale, rather than as a contestant.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Used to be close friends with Keith. But then Keith broke his promise to share his reward with him, and chose Virginia instead. Garrett was very angry about this to say the least and broke off ties with him. They never got to make amends because Keith nominated him for elimination that same episode and he got sent home.
  • Inverted with Heather. The two got off on a very bad footing after Garrett made a sexist remark to her in an early episode (albeit out of a desire to annoy her rather than genuinely believing that women are inferior, not realizing just how offensive she found it), but they quickly became close allies once she moved over to the Blue Team.

Placement: 5th

Garrett's Elimination Comment - "Keith stabbed me in the back, but the fact of the matter is that the chicken went out there undercooked, and now I'm leaving. I'm still not gonna give up, but I wanted this more than anything."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I'm trying to find someone here that deserves a restaurant. Each and every step of the way, Garrett fought me and his team. That's why he's not here any longer."

Maribel Miller

"I'm here trying to work as a team."

Occupation: Cafeteria Chef

Age: 31

Hometown: New York, New York

---

• The Generic Girl: Never stood out that much amongst the more colorful personalities of the season.
• Jaw Drop: It's easy to miss, but she does this after Ramsay calls Sara a "fat-mouthed little stupid bitch".
• The Load: While not an awful performer by any means, she never did very well in any of the services. Particularly obvious in Episode 3, where she single-handedly wrecked what was otherwise a near-flawless performance from the Red Team.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She didn't return for the final service, and her position was filled by Giacomo. In an interview years after Season 2 aired, she revealed that she declined to come back as she only got the call moments after returning home.

Placement: 6th

Maribel's Elimination Comment - "You know, Sara and Virginia were just out for themselves. I'm here trying to work as a team, I think that was my weakness. I was myself throughout the process, my husband will see that, and he'll be proud of me, and my daughter will, too, and that's all that counts to me."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "I'm trying to find someone who deserves a restaurant. Now, to run that restaurant properly, you need a leader, and Maribel clearly can't lead a section, let alone a kitchen."

Rachel Brown^†on May 9th, 2007, she tragically died by suicide via gunshot

"This is what we were born to do! This is all we have!"

Occupation: Personal Chef

Age: 39

Hometown: Dallas, Texas

---

• Arch-Enemy: Rachel had a short lived feud with Sara as she did not like how the latter was treating the competition lightly along with her poor attitude. Thankfully, the two agreed to keep their dislikes out of the kitchen for Heather's sake in the finale.
• Butch Lesbian: Was confirmed to have a girlfriend outside the show.
• The Determinator: She wasn't the greatest chef, but Rachel made up for it with how much determination she had. At one point, she went out for ice, but forgot to bring any money, having to resort to beg the customers to help her out.
• Fatal Flaw: Rachel was a fairly competent chef all things considered, and was probably the most consistent chef in the red kitchen alongside Heather for the first three episodes. However, what became her flaw was that once she made a mistake, she tended to panic and make even more mistakes that snowballed into even bigger ones. As such, her final two episodes saw her completely fall apart, and she was gone not long after.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Came close to doing this after the fourth service; she had been clearly the weakest performer in the Red Team that episode, but Sara pushed the other women into nominating Virginia instead. After hearing Virginia's elimination plea, Ramsay commented on how Rachel must think she got off lightly — at which point Rachel actually told him that if she had been the weakest performer, then she should still be eliminated over Virginia. Fortunately for both women, Tom had been worse than either of them that night, and so Rachel carried on for another week.
• Nervous Wreck: Wound up as this in her final two services, and it was so bad that she wound up not making the black jackets.
• No Fair Cheating: After overcooking some meat, she tried rubbing ketchup into it to make it look medium. Unfortunately for her, Ramsay was able to tell by touching the meat that it was overdone.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Both she and Heather delivered a decisive one to Tom, following Giacomo's elimination.
• True Companions: With Heather.
• The Worf Effect: Rachel initially started as one of the more consistent chefs on the Red Team aside from Heather, and seemed like a sleeper pick to win. After Heather was switched over however, Rachel started to severely crash, having two particularly awful services in a row. The first time she survived because Tom had run out of chances, but the second time she was finally eliminated.

Placement: 7th

Rachel's Elimination Comment - "I've never, ever failed at anything I've set my mind to. It hurt, but everything has changed since I've been in Hell's Kitchen. You know, the restaurant was gonna be... Yeah, it's a dream. You don’t quit having a dream... because of one night."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Rachel clearly couldn't handle it; she panicked, buckled and actually screwed the kitchen completely. You've got no chance of running a successful business if you can't handle one section."

Thomas "Tom" Poley (Pauley)^†On July 1st, 2023, he tragically died

"I sweat all the time. I'm a schvetter."

Occupation: Former Stockbroker

Age: 43

Hometown: Belleville, New Jersey

---

• Apathy Killed the Cat: Ramsay repeatedly accused Tom of having this problem; in one service, Tom simply gave up, and in another, Tom didn't react with enough "hurt" when Ramsay yelled at him, which Ramsay took as a sign that Tom wasn't serious enough about the mistakes he was making.
• Determinator: Vowed to continue on the cooking path after he was eliminated. Ramsay, on the other hand, called him "a really crap cook" and felt he should have stayed in stockbroking.
• Fat Idiot: Was pretty incompetent and clueless in the kitchen; he was the weakest chef this season and one of the weakest to appear on the show.
  • One example was when Keith asked him to make tomato sauce, but then Garret found some. Keith told him never mind, but he decided to continue making it anyway. Ramsay berated him for this, and he blamed Keith for being misleading.
  • Another example is instead of making fresh tortellini, he used frozen stuff and Ramsay caught him in the act quickly.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody on the Blue Team liked having Tom around due to his constant mistakes and some of the Red Team members did not like having him around either.
• The Load: From the very start, Tom was easily the weakest chef on the blue team. He made constant blunders during service, and only managed to survive as long as he did due to other chefs crashing harder than him.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Every time he even slightly injured himself, whether it was mildly burning himself on a pan or nicking his finger with a knife, he complained and complained and complained for the rest of the service. This was made all the more glaring next to the way that Heather carried on directing her team after severely burning herself in the second service.
• No Sympathy: He had absolutely none when Larry was forced to leave the competition, which was something Rachel very quickly called him out for.
• Rule of Three: He was eliminated on his third nomination.
• Spell My Name With An S: His last name was mispelled "Pauley" during his time in Hell's Kitchen.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: The only thing that went right for Tom was the meat filet challenge, where compared to everyone else, he managed to get the highest score overall, slicing five of his eight filets perfectly.
• Two First Names: Tom Pauley. Though, it's a misspelling of Poley.

Placement: 8th

Tom's Elimination Comment - "I loved working in the kitchen. By no means am I giving up. This is the path I've chosen. You know what's scary? I gotta go find a job. Hey, Chef, I need a recommendation."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Tom's got a big heart, sadly he's a really crap cook. Why on earth he's ever decided to attempt to become a chef? I'll never know."

Giacomo Alfieri

"I think that Chef Ramsay knows that there's something else in me that he hasn't seen yet. I have to find it in myself so that I can pull it out, and once I do that I can have a great chance of winning this competition."

Occupation: Pizza Chef

Age: 21

Hometown: Euless, Texas

---

• Badass Decay: Ramsay absolutely loved his Signature Dish. However, Giacomo's performances dropped sharply afterward, resulting in his quick exit from the competition.
• Beginner's Luck: Giacomo did one thing right: the Signature Dish Challenge. Ramsay picked Giacomo's Signature Dish as the best of the Signature Dishes. This is in sharp contrast to Giacomo's performances later on.
• The Ditz: As seen under Epic Fail.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Ramsay constantly threw this accusation at him early on, for "poncing about with women's hair." He later tried tying it back (which made him look even more feminine), but this didn't improve his performances any, and he was soon gone.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: He revealed in an interview that his signature dish that was labeled as the best of the day contained pre-packaged pasta. Something like that would be considered a death sentence for any signature dish, but Giacomo to this day is the only chef to have used pre-packaged ingredients and still get a good review.
• Epic Fail: In Ramsay's opinion. In the service that finally got Giacomo eliminated, Giacomo had a problem turning the oven on, which Ramsay finally cited as to why Giacomo should go. For perspective, this was such a huge blunder in Ramsay's eyes that he eliminated Giacomo even though Giacomo only got one vote for elimination from the Blue Team, while Tom got three.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Giacomo's signature dish was considered to be the best of the day, which quickly put him in contention to win. Unfortunately for him, his signature dish was about the only thing that went right for him, as he quickly started to tank afterwards and was gone not long after.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Inverted! In real life he goes by "Jack", but went by his full name Giacomo on the show.
• Weak, but Skilled: As seen by his signature dish, Giacomo appeared to have some talent and competence. However, his talents never translated well into the kitchen.

Placement: 9th

Giacomo's Elimination Comment - "I was shocked because I'm not a quitter, and Tom just gives up. I screwed up one big thing tonight. I wish I could go back in time and fix that, but you've gotta pay the piper."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Before you can even attempt to run a restaurant, the first thing you've got to do is make sure you know how to cook. Giacomo? He was lost beyond belief."

Gabriel "Gabe" Gagliardi

"A million things is going on, and I couldn't handle it by myself."

Occupation: Marketing Executive

Age: 27

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

---

• Alliterative Name: Gabriel "Gabe" Gagliardi
• The Generic Guy: Among the collection of misfits that was this season's Blue Team, Gabe had probably the most normal personality and background.
• Nice Guy: Probably the nicest chef of that season.
• Nice Guys Finish Last: To quote:
  Ramsay: You're a sweet guy, but sweet guys don't make good head chefs. Take your jacket off and get out of Hell's Kitchen.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: When Larry was taken out of the competition due to illness, Gabe pets the dog by telling Larry that "Tonight's service is for you" in the Confession Cam. No prizes for guessing which service completely folded and who was eliminated that night.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He didn't really stick around very long before getting eliminated.

Placement: 10th

Gabe's Elimination Comment - "Chef said I was too much of a sweet guy, but you don't have to be loud, and rude, and obnoxious to run a kitchen. I definitely don't think Chef Ramsay made the right decision."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "It's absolutely crucial in Hell's Kitchen to have finesse and passion. It was pretty obvious that Gabe had no passion."

Lawrence "Larry" Sik

"Don't piss me off, or you get a pitbull."

Occupation: Fishmonger

Age: 38

Hometown: Arlington, Texas

---

• Apathy Killed the Cat: Ramsay accused him of having this problem, as more often than not he didn't seem too willing to jump in to help.
• Black Dude Dies First: He was both the first of this season's men to leave and the first person overall to be forced out of the show for medical reasons. On top of that, he was the show's first-ever black contestant, making it a case of First Black Dude Dies First.
• Casanova Wannabe: About the only thing that went right for him while on the show was getting to share the hot tub with Heather and Virginia. Even then his attempts to flirt didn't go anywhere, thanks to the former being a lesbian and the latter being newlywed, though at least they didn't get offended by it.
• The Load: Larry was never a very useful teammate. His signature dish flopped, he generally seemed uncaring in the kitchen, and had no acceptable steaks in the steak cut challenge.
• Meaningful Name: His last name is pronounced the same as 'sick', and he was hospitalised.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Larry wasn't eliminated by Ramsay; he had to be hospitalized and thus could not continue as a contestant.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Larry Ross, but went by Larry Sik on the show
• The Stoic: He never really emoted much, which was something that Ramsay was quick to capitalize on.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Aside from being the first medical exit, he didn't really stand out much.

Placement: 11th (Medical exit)

Larry's Elimination Comment - "I didn't quit. My body quit. This is the worst thing that could've happened. And right now I'm a little broken, and it's hard for me to see my dream slip away."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Paula "Polly" Holladay

"I've had 6 sons, I've had them all naturally and if I can endure that, Hell's Kitchen's going to be nothing."

Occupation: Caterer

Age: 43

Hometown: Ben Franklin, Texas

---

• Epic Fail: Spent over an hour and a half cooking appetizers, and still didn't manage to make a single acceptable serving. This led to Ramsay re-designating her the "kitchen donkey" and got her eliminated after the first service.
• Fiery Redhead: Subverted. She was actually very laid back.
• Insistent Terminology: Her "undone" foccacia bread which was also her Signature Dish. Gordon was baffled as to what that actually meant, eventually settling on "half-baked". Needless to say, he was not at all impressed by that and didn't even bother tasting the dish.
• Mirror Character: Seems to be this to Season 1's Elsie. Both are relatively unexperienced chefs who are mothers to at least six children. However, Elsie managed to make it all the way to the final four, while Polly was the first eliminated.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Never went by Paula
• Tempting Fate: Claimed that Hell's Kitchen would be a cakewalk because she gave birth to 6 boys naturally. She performed so badly on the appetizer section that she taken off of it and was eliminated in Episode 1.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: Averted. Being a caterer would imply that she at least has some cooking knowledge. However, she revealed she had previously never gone to culinary school at all unlike the other chefs, and as such, was woefully out of her depth compared to the rest of the chefs.

Placement: 12th

Polly's Elimination Comment - "I think my family will be surprised because they fully expected me to come here and kick some butt. I would rather be nice and lose than to be, you know, somebody who's conniving and win."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "This is a journey, and right now, we're going to hell and back each and every week to make sure we find the right person. And Polly? No chance."

Season 3

Rahman "Rock" Harper

"The only threat to Rock is Rock."

Occupation: Executive Chef

Age: 30

Hometown: Spotsylvania Courthouse, Virginia

---

• Berserk Button: Having to sort through trash causes him to have a complete meltdown, due to it reminding him of his childhood in the ghetto.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He grew up in the ghetto and never had to go dumpster diving, so when losing a challenge meant he had to sort through trash he lost it to the point Television Without Pity gave him his own bleep o fucking meter. Later, he shows regret over the act, and more or less goes back to being normal for the remainder of the season. He crossed into this territory again for the first Black Jacket service, when he became very irritable and picked fights with Jen and Bonnie. After elimination that night, he cooled off and apologized to Jen for his behavior.
• Breakout Character: Of a sort, as he's one of the few winners to make more than one appearance in future seasons.
• Brutal Honesty: Was fairly blunt when he voiced his opinions on how weak Josh was. Right in front of him.
• Deadpan Snarker: One of the best examples in Hell's Kitchen history.
  Rock: (about Susan in Season 11) The woman with the towel on her head wasn't too intimidating. I think we're good.
• Insufferable Genius: While he was never an outright Jerkass, Rock had a high opinion of his skills and didn't mince words when it came to Brutal Honesty. What kept him from being a Smug Snake was that Rock was actually able to back up everything he said and he ultimately won.
• Jerkass to One: While Rock wasn't nasty to anyone, he was very blunt around Josh, leading to several moments where he called the latter a bad cook. But in this case, this is somewhat justified as Josh was really bad.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rock had very high opinion of his skills and had his moments of being rash, but he was for the most part calm and collected. Even during his worst moments, such as his fight with Jen, he immediately felt guilty about it and apologized.
• Meaningful Name: He was, as Ramsay said, "Rock Solid".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Felt this way over fighting with Jen during the first Black Jacket service. He didn't like the way she talked to him, but admitted that he should've talked to her about it AFTER service, not exploding at her during it. He cried about it because he felt great disappointment for acting so rashly. He apologized to Jen later that night.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Rahman, but he went by Rock during the show.
• Oh, Crap!: Had this reaction when Ramsay announced that Melissa was moving to the Blue Team. He was shaking his head and double facepalming.
• Say My Name: After Brad tries to subtly accuse Rock of hiding, Rock tells him this.
• Scary Black Man: For the most part subverted, but played straight when the Blue Team lost a challenge and was made to clear out the trash. His resulting Cluster F-Bomb even rivals Gordon himself!
• Smug Super: As high as he regarded himself in his skills, as well as every other sentence being a boast about himself in reference to his rivals, he had the goods to back it all up and ultimately won that season.
• Sole Survivor: The last member of the Blue Team left standing after Josh's mid-service elimination.
• Sore Loser: Averted this most of the time, but when the Blue Team narrowly lost the lobster challenge and had to sort out the trash as punishment, he got extremely fed up and dropped a Cluster F-Bomb.
• Tempting Fate: When he got irritated with Melissa, he reflected "If Melissa was on my team, a very dark side of me would come out." She got transferred to the Blue Team that very night.
• Third-Person Person: Would sometimes say his own name now in then.
• What Were You Thinking?: After serving frozen gnocchi for his Signature Dish, he himself later reflected that frozen food was a big no-no and that he was disappointed that he couldn't execute his own Signature Dish properly. For a long time, Rock was the only chef to date to recover fully from this Signature Dish pitfall (unless you count the dishes of Season 5's Danny and Season 13's La Tasha). Until Season 16's Kimberly, no other chef who made this mistake has made it past the halfway point of their season.
• Worthy Opponent: He saw Julia as this, noticing how strong she was overall. It's to the extent he actually took it hard when Julia ended up being eliminated over him. In contrast to Bonnie — who had to put Julia up for elimination — crying in Jen's arms, he sits alone while pounding a fist to the side of his head in sadness.
• You Look Familiar: Makes a cameo appearance on an episode of 24 Hours To Hell And Back.

Placement: Winner

Rock's Winner Comment - "This is just so big for me and my family. I just won! Thank God, I just won! I owe everything I do for my family. The fact that I finished and I completed shows my son, shows my daughter, that if you really stick your mind to something, you can do it! It's good to come home with a quarter million dollars. Holla!"

Ramsay's Winner Comment - "Rock deserved to win Hell's Kitchen because he's a very confident cook and he has become a really good leader. He can motivate staff, he can create, all those qualities is not easy to find in one chef. Rock holds all of them."

Bonnie Muirhead

"I think I'll forever have nightmares about Gordon Ramsay now. But yeah, he's still kinda hot."

Occupation: Nanny & Personal Chef

Age: 26

Hometown: Santa Monica, California

---

• Beware the Nice Ones: When Melissa was talking constantly and trying to dictate the Red Team during a punishment, Bonnie really wanted to strangle her.
• Dumbass Has a Point: She was more scattered brained than stupid, but she was in the right most of the time. During her first nomination, she admitted that she needed more experience in a professional kitchen and pointed out that Ramsay would have made mistakes at her age. The look on Ramsay's face indicated that he agreed with her on that one.
• Dumb Blonde: Started off as this, but improved enough to make it to the finals.
• Genki Girl: Was very easily excitable and often energetic going into the challenges and especially enjoying the rewards.
• Graceful Loser: Didn't show any sign of bitterness over losing and was very happy for Rock.
• Hidden Depths: At the beginning, she may have seemed like a shallow Dumb Blonde to some fans at first. But she was actually a very nice, humble chef (in stark contrast with some of the other members of the Red Team) who became a lot more competent as the season went on and even made it to the finals.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Bonnie's brigade in the finale was all her original red teammates because she reasoned they defeated the men several times before with an all woman team. Considering that Melissa would overcook all her prawns in the service and Julia constantly gave her attitude that night, it most likely hindered her in the long run.
• Insistent Terminology: She frequently refers to herself as a "nanny", but reveals to the other contestants during one of the punishments that she mostly just cooks for her clients while occasionally watching their children. Rock was confused by this, pointing out that "personal chef" would be both a more accurate job title and a more respectable-sounding one.
• Modesty Towel: Is seen on camera holding one in front of herself when Ramsay wakes all the chefs up very early for a challenge, and she happened to be in the shower at the time.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After sending Julia up for elimination, and having her eliminated, she's immediately crying and hugging Jen.
• Power Trio: With Jen and Julia.
• Precision F-Strike: Delivers a massive one in the aftermath of the wedding challenge disaster.
• Took a Level in Badass: Started off as weak in the beginning. Just barely managed to scrape into the Black Jackets, but was considered best of the night in their first service. She continued this strong streak and ended up in the finals.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She was very uncomfortable with picking up a lobster from the lobster tank for one of the challenges.

Placement: 2nd

Bonnie's Runner-Up Comment - "I am so happy for Rock. I think Chef Ramsay did make the right decision. I'm not worried about myself. I think that the right opportunity will find me."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Jennifer "Jen" Yemola

"We're gonna take the boys to school!"

Occupation: Pastry Chef

Age: 26

Hometown: Hazelton, Pennsylvania

---

• Beginner's Luck: In the lobster dish challenge, Jen presented a lobster and crab bisque, which she's never made before. She actually managed to pull it off and score over Brad.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Jen was easily one of the most consistent women in the kitchen, and outside of her pasta bin incident, she was never shown making many mistakes. Challenge wise, Jen tended to struggle however, with her signature dish flopping and failing to clean a single acceptable dover sole.
• The Generic Girl: Outside of the pasta bin incident, Jen didn't really stand out too much.
• Heroic BSoD: Nearly broke down during the Signature Dish Challenge when her dish was called up, with every preceding dish having been rejected by Ramsay. She quickly recovered despite also being handed a mediocre review.
• The Leader: She was often labeled as the red team's leader, especially after Melissa started to fall apart.
• Misblamed: She had to present Melissa's overcooked duck to the bride and groom during the wedding challenge, and was sure they must've pegged her as the one who botched the disastrous dish; luckily, Gordon quickly figured out for himself who the real culprit was.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the third service, she cooked too much pasta then tossed it away. When she noticed that they had a severe lack of pasta, she picked it up and decided to wash it so no one would know. Julia did and Jen felt really guilty for what she caused.
• Power Trio: With Bonnie and Julia.
• Taking the Bullet: See My God, What Have I Done? for more details. When Joanna was going to choose Julia to be eliminated, Jen immediately said that she was the other contestant. Subverted as Joanna screwed herself over in the end, but Ramsay did give Jen a warning about the pasta thing.

Placement: 3rd

Jen's Elimination Comment - "I'm from a small town, and things like this don't happen to people like us every day. I'm gonna be successful. I know I am, but I tried so hard, and I sacrificed so much so far, and it just wasn't enough."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Julia Williams

"I don't understand how I could be needed nowhere and yet nothing is getting done."

Occupation: Waffle House Cook

Age: 28

Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia

---

• Achilles' Heel:
  • Her short-order cook method was fine when it came to working under pressure, but since she had a narrow knowledge in terms of cooking (like not knowing what a crème brulée was or its ingredients) she couldn't keep up with the high demand of fancy cooking. For example, when it came to the lobster challenge she only made a simple lobster risotto (and was heavily trounced by Rock's deep-fried lobster tail), and the leftover challenge had her make sea bass fish and chips (which she got defeated by Rock again).
  • She excelled at almost every station she was on. Except for the garnish station. Her first night on it, she struggled a lot and her performance on garnishes led to her elimination that very night.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Was looked down upon by the other members of the Red Team for her Waffle House background in the beginning and nearly broke down in Episode 1 (she was sidelined to slice apples) because she only wanted to help but certain people (ie Joanna and Tiffany) wouldn't let her. Thankfully, Ramsay straightened this out immediately.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Surprisingly becomes this when she returned to the finale, where she became way more abrasive and rude towards Bonnie, although that likely stemmed from unfinished tensions with Bonnie.
• Book Ends: States in Confession Cam that she hadn't gone to culinary school, but she was willing to learn. When she was eliminated, Ramsay said that he would pay for her to go to culinary school.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Her skills as a Waffle House Chef which, while not as fancy as being a Sous Chef or Line Chef, helped her out immensely. The most prominent examples are when she was the only chef on the Red Team to correctly cook quail eggs, and the breakfast challenge had her leading both Red and Blue Team to complete it. When it came to the teams making their own menus, her only item was the New York Steak (Bonnie put it down and said it was a "cop out" but Ramsay said to put it back up), and it was the most requested item of the night with not a single order returned. Finally, in the fist Black Jacket challenge to feed High School students, her basic chicken sandwiches snagged her the victory.
  • The other, better-educated contestants disparaged and marginalized her abilities, but they quickly learned that her working in a hurried, high-stress waffle house meant that she was perfectly equipped to kick serious ass in ''Hell's Kitchen;;. End result: the "mere" Waffle House cook that was bullied back in Episode 1, made it to the final four and earned some of the most glowing praise Gordon Ramsay has ever given a contestant on this show. Heck, he even paid for her to go to culinary school after the show.
• Establishing Character Moment: Her Confession Cam where she explains her history and how she wanted to go to culinary school and her eagerness to learn.
• Fatal Flaw: Unlike her fellow competitors, Julia was not a formally trained chef. Her skills were enough to make her the most consistent female chef throughout the season, but when it came time to make specialty dishes, the expectable happens.
• Graceful Loser: Averted, surprisingly enough for someone known as the Only Sane Man on the Red Team. But when she came back, she was openly bitter about losing and was rather uncooperative on Bonnie's team. This MIGHT have been played straight if she had been allocated to Rock's team, who she was rooting for. Bonnie, she just didn't care about (probably due to Bonnie being the one to put her up for elimination).
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The other women looked down on her Waffle House qualifications, but quickly learned that while she stumbled considerably with specialty dishes, her short-order experience meant that she was cool under pressure and her cooking was very consistent, which are talents that come up far more often in services (especially in Hell's Kitchen, where it's hotter than normal, you're cooking with people you don't know well, and Gordon Ramsay is yelling at you) and are much harder to learn than cooking fancy dishes.
• Jack of All Trades: She was pretty versatile in the kitchen and her only weakness was that she wasn't well versed in fancy cooking. It might change now that she went to culinary school.
• Power Trio: With Bonnie and Jen.
• Shorter Means Smarter: The only other female contestant in her height range that season was Melissa and she pretty much was consistent on every station she was in despite her shortcomings.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Was a fairly nice woman for the most part. But in the finale, she was very distraught about losing the competition. Ok, understandable. But then this translated into a Sore Loser when she was put on Bonnie's team and was largely uncooperative, though this can be explained as her having unresolved issues with Bonnie putting her up for elimination.
• Underdogs Never Lose: Ramsay personally sends her to culinary school because he saw that she had so much talent in her.
• Underestimating Badassery: Let's just say that Waffle House chefs know how to cook quail eggs pretty well.
• Weak, but Skilled: What she lacked in fancy cooking, she made up with hard-work and a level head. When she's eliminated, Ramsay's only comments on her is that Julia had the natural talent to cook, and with some time, she would be able to own her own restaurant. She's also the only contestant whom Ramsay personally to send her to culinary school and wishes for her to come back to win the competition hand's down.
• Worthy Opponent: To Rock. When she was eliminated, he was very sad because he saw her as an inspiration. When he confesses this, he's shown alone and pounding his head with a fist in frustration during the aftermath of her elimination.

Placement: 4th

Julia's Elimination Comment - "I think that people underestimated me. I know that Chef Ramsay is only hard on us to make us better, because its made me so much better. I know that great things will come on this, you know? Just starting with culinary art school. I made it really far, but I don't want to go home."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "To become a great chef, you must have a natural ability. Clearly, Julia does have it. All she needs is a little more experience. After that, she will be ready to run her own restaurant."

Joshua "Josh" Wahler

"Food is sex. And everyone likes sex and everyone likes food. And I wanna make people feel like they've just had great sex."

Occupation: Junior Sous Chef

Age: 26

Hometown: Miami Beach, Florida

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• Can't Take Criticism: One aspect that is not mentioned about Josh is his inability to take criticism even if its supposed to be constructive. Instead, he arrogantly brushes it off and states he is a strong cook.
• Every Year They Fizzle Out: Ramsay lampshaded twice that despite all his experience and a glittering resume, he was a terrible cook who was constantly outclassed by a waffle house cook (Julia), a pastry chef (Jen), and a nanny (Bonnie).
• Epic Fail: Despite being a consistently terrible contestant, he somehow made it to Black Jackets... and became the first ever contestant, and only Black Jacket, to be eliminated mid-service due to his complete inability to cook appetizers. To be more specific, he started five pans of risottos when none had been ordered. After Ramsay tells him off for this, he starts cooking spaghetti before he fired the table. He was reminded that they cook spaghetti to order. Then he does it again. When his risotto was returned for being undercooked, Ramsay had just about enough.
• Fatal Flaw: His refusal to change course when given criticism became his undoing in the first black jacket service. Instead of not firing food before an order came to be, he instead fired spaghetti a head of time twice. This did him no favors when an undercooked risotto came back.
• Graceful Loser: For all his flaws, you have to give Josh major props for how well he took his elimination, especially considering how he was eliminated.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: Continued to be confident and hopeful of winning, despite being consistently bad during services and challenges.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His performance in the first Black Jacket service, where he was caught cooking food ahead of the orders no less than three times by Chef Ramsay and thus leading to an excessive waste of food. This almost certainly sealed his fate by the time he was chewed out for having undercooked one customer's risotto.
• Idiot Houdini: Despite being one of the worst chefs in the series, he finished fifth overall.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: May or may not have had one. Rock inferred that Josh did know how to cook, but he wasn't able to trust himself (despite all of his supposed confidence).
• The Load: Josh very well could be the worst black jacket in the show's history. He never had a good service in the kitchen, constantly messing up and getting yelled at, and it's telling that his only passable performance in either service and challenges was a dover sole cleaning challenge. It was such to the extent that very few had much expectations that Josh would win, with Rock himself lampshading his considerably weaker performances in the kitchen against other chefs, Melissa included. Ultimately this culminated in being the first black jacket to be ejected during service.
• Picked Last: Ended up on Rock's team as the last pick. While he wasn't overly sore about this (certainly not to the extent that Julia, the second-last pick was), he genuinely couldn't understand why he ended up being chosen last. In the actual service he nearly tanked Rock's kitchen, and after the service Rock flat-out said in front of all the other chefs that he wished Josh hadn't been on the team.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of the biggest offenders of the trope, as despite talking himself up as one of the best cooks of the season, he was constantly weak in the kitchen and only got as far as he did due to other chefs messing up worse than him.
• They Just Dont Get It: You would expect Josh to learn from Ramsay's comment about not firing food before they were ordered the first time around. But the two other times he did it afterwards proved he did not.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: About the only thing that went right for him was the dover sole cleaning challenge, where he had the best performance out of his team.

Placement: 5th (Eliminated mid-service)

Josh's Elimination Comment - "I would have given my right arm to stay in the service and keep fighting, because I came here with a dream to win. Aaand... it appears it's over. It appears that Green Valley Ranch is not in my future. Dream's over, guys."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Bradley "Brad" Miller

"I'd like to see Aaron get better... get better at cooking."

Occupation: Sous Chef

Age: 25

Hometown: Scottsdale, Arizona

---

• Control Freak: During the menu planning service, Brad took a lot of control of the menu, feeling that Josh's and Rock's suggestions were too basic, and as a result, much of the menu consisted of his items.
• Dramatic Irony: Relating to above, despite the majority of the menu being his own, he wound up screwing up on his own dishes, resulting in his elimination.
• Fatal Flaw: Leadership. As stated by Ramsay in his elimination comment, Brad was a solid chef on the line and was probably the second most consistent chef on the blue team after Rock. When it came to leadership however, he struggled so badly at it that he wound up being eliminated right before black jackets, over Josh nonetheless.
• The Generic Guy: Despite making it to just before the Black Jackets, Brad never did anything to stand out.
• Leader Wannabe: He tried to assert himself as a leader for the Blue Team, but he did so badly that he got eliminated over Bonnie and Josh (both were a lot more inconsistent than him at that point).
• Nervous Wreck: Ended up as this in his final service, as it hindered his ability to cook pasta and ultimately wound up getting him eliminated.
• No Sympathy: In contrast to everyone on the blue team who tried to help out Aaron as best they could, Brad on the other hand was notably unsympathetic to his illness, stating that he just wanted Aaron to get better at cooking, and even went as far as to get annoyed at Aaron after he had to leave the kitchen feeling unwell.
• Oh, Crap!: Sat there, jaw dropped when he found out Melissa was moving to the Blue Team.
• Never My Fault: Had shades of this in his elimination comment, he felt that Rock and Josh nominated him out of fear he was the better chef on the men and still felt he was the best. However, he was eliminated due to how terribly he performed as a leader.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Somewhat. For the most part he was a good chef, and was one of the more consistent chefs of the season. At the same time however, Brad was not perfect, and he had a tough time taking responsibility for his mistakes.
• The Rival: Tried to be this to Rock. It didn't last long.

Placement: 6th

Brad's Elimination Comment - "Rock and Josh know that I'm the better chef, and I think it was their decision to vote me off because I was their biggest competition. You know, I still think I'm the best."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Brad was a hard worker. Unfortunately, he worked with his back rather than his brain. He lacked finesse to become a great chef."

Melissa Firpo

"I'm in charge, but I can't do everything. I need help."

Occupation: Line Cook

Age: 29

Hometown: New York, New York

---

• The Dreaded: As her attitude and work ethic worsened, she became this to both teams. It got so bad that Ramsay sent her to the Blue Team as a last chance to save herself, a decision that left the men completely aghast.
• Epic Fail:
  • She overcooked the duck breast, the Red Team's meat entrée, for the wedding challenge to rubber and left them with no time to prepare any sides or garnishes to complement it. Knowing they were doomed from the start, she tried to stop Jen from presenting it, which didn't help her case with Ramsay after he saw the disastrous dish.
  • In an act of mercy, Gordon sent her to the Blue Team in the hopes that it would help her to improve her performance after having alienated the other women. When she failed to bounce back in her first service on the Blue Team, Gordon declared that she was finished and sent her packing without even bothering with the usual nomination process.
• Fiery Redhead: Not the most positive example of this, considering how much her attitude soured over the competition.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She started off nice, ignoring Tiffany's request for Melissa to nominate Julia simply for her lack of experience and rightfully nominating Tiffany instead. After a while, however, her attitude turned and she became really abrasive. This continued until she was eliminated. She returned to her original attitude when on Bonnie's team in the final.
• Leader Wannabe: Became this during the wedding episode. This grated on everyone's nerves, Ramsay's included. All in all, she did a lot more damage than good.
• The Load: Her disastrous performance during the wedding challenge cemented her as this, with Ramsay lampshading how many second chances she had been given when she was finally eliminated. She made up for this somewhat when she returned to her old self in the finale.
• Madness Makeover: When she became loopy, her appearance reflected it. She got Messy Hair, poorly applied make-up, and a soul patch.
• Messy Hair: Had straight hair at the beginning. But it devolved into this when she underwent her radical personality change.
• Sanity Slippage: Was fairly level-headed at the very beginning. But halfway through the season, she had an inexplicable change of character. She stopped taking care of herself, her hair was constantly frazzled, and she started growing a little beard. But that was nothing in comparison to her personality change, when she adopted a ''very'' inflated ego while sinking in performance at the same time.
  Bonnie: What's happened to you?!
  • One example was during the wedding service. Jen and Julia announced that they were ready to bring up food in 1 minute. She then told them that she needed 3 minutes. When Ramsay asked how long, she said 4 minutes. Then immediately brought up her garnish. She then asked Jen if she still needed 4 minutes.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Played in reverse order. At the very start, she looked pretty good. But halfway through, she stopped taking care of her appearance and it really showed. By the time she returned for the finale, it was pretty obvious her time away allowed her time to care about her appearance again, and she looked as good as she did at the start.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Roughly halfway through the season, Melissa inexplicably became really abrasive and bossy, trying to take charge of the Red Team. She was just as suddenly back to her original personality in the finale.
• Took a Level in Kindness: For all her mistakes, she mellowed out considerably upon being switched to the Blue Team, and avoided butting heads with her new teammates. And upon returning in the finale, she's back to her old self.
• The Worf Effect: Melissa actually started off as the potential odds on favorite of the season, having a solid signature dish and a performance that was good enough to be labeled as the best of the worst. As the season progressed however, her cooking and attitude severely dipped, and she went from being a potential front-runner to being booted without being given a chance to explain why she should stay.

Placement: 7th

Melissa's Elimination Comment - "I was the worst person in the blue kitchen tonight. I'm upset that I had to leave, I didn't want to leave. I think Chef Ramsay sent me home tonight because he expected me to perform, and he said he'd give me one chance, and I didn't."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "That was really difficult today because Brad and Josh were absolutely horrible. With Melissa, she's very assertive, and she sounds like a leader. But unfortunately, she doesn't cook like a leader."

Vincent "Vinnie" Fama

"Well, hmmm, stock is made of water. And vegetables are made of water. No harm, no foul."

Occupation: Nightclub Chef

Age: 29

Hometown: Milltown, New Jersey

---

• Bullying a Dragon: Vinnie often had problems mouthing off to Ramsay.
• Expy: To Andrew from Season 1. Both thought highly of themselves often clashed with Ramsay, and despite making it reasonably far in the season, were consistently poor in service. However, they did show to have good sides deep down, and both would eventually go on to have their best performances in their finales, even going as far as to recover a section that they had taken over.
• Hidden Depths: In a deleted scene, it was revealed he owned a pet boa constrictor named Marilyn, which prompted the other chefs to tease him about it.
• Insane Troll Logic: Justified his replacement of vegetable stock with water for the risotto by saying that vegetable stock was made out of water. He said it in a condescending matter, as if it was the most obvious solution in the world.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Apparently, Vinnie is okay being called dishonest and two-faced, but not lazy.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he didn't say it in the most tactful of ways, he did have a point that he would've been furious had Jen pulled spaghetti out of the trash and attempted to serve it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Other than his blows with Ramsay, Vinnie was pretty cordial towards his teammates, even urging Rock to talk with his family after the final dinner service.
• The Load: Vinnie was never a good chef in the competition. He constantly screwed up in service, and never once had an acceptable performance in challenges.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Vinnie was very arrogant and overconfident, despite him being a consistently weak chef.
• Too Dumb to Live: He decided to talk back to Chef Ramsay after the first service, sparking an argument between the two of them. He was lucky the Blue Team won that night.
• Took a Level in Badass: A consistently awful performer when he was an actual competitor, but he actually did reasonably well as part of Rock's team in the final.

Placement: 8th

Vinnie's Elimination Comment - "I can't do what he does, he's got years of experience on me. He knows what oysters and caviar taste like from Japan, and he knows what spices from India are like, and I don't know that. There's a lot of things that I'd like to do over, but the reality is that, you know, there isn't... There's no second chances in Hell's Kitchen."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Vinnie talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. The bottom line with Vinnie is, he's a crap cook."

Joanna Dunn

"I'll flirt. I'll manipulate. I'll get whatever I want out of Chef Ramsay."

Occupation: Assistant Chef

Age: 22

Hometown: Detroit, Michigan

---

• Appeal to Worse Problems: This is how she tried to get rid of Jen, saying that at least she wouldn't serve trashed pasta. This backfires on her spectacularly as not only did Jen apologize for that lapse in judgement, but Ramsay pointed out that that same service, Joanna tried serving rancid crab, which could've been lethal had Ramsay not caught it, on top of not even taking responsibility for it. It unsurprisingly results in her elimination.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: She displayed this both times she was nominated. During Episode 1, she allied herself with Tiffany early on, only to immediately turn on her and blame her for everything that went wrong in the service as soon as Melissa nominated them both for elimination. Then, when she was nominated in Episode 3, rather than in any way try to defend herself, she attacked Jen and said that she should be sent home for thinking about serving spaghetti from the garbage — which blew up spectacularly in her face when Ramsay pointed out that Joanna actually did serve rotten crab meat and showed no remorse about having done so, and that using her own logic she was the one who should be eliminated (which she quickly was).
• Establishing Character Moment: During the Signature Dish Challenge, she boasted to the Confession Cam that she would flirt and manipulate to get what she wanted. True to her word, she acted all flirty with Ramsay (who is married, by the way). Unimpressed, he told her that her chicken is salty and dry.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Joanna was thoroughly terrible in both attitude and skill for her brief time, but she had more than a right to be annoyed with the fact that Jen tried serving trashed pasta.
• Leader Wannabe: Before the first service, she tried to take control of prep, more specifically the way stock was done. The only problem was that the women were prepping the stock correctly despite Joanna saying they were doing it wrong.
• Lethal Chef: Attempted to serve a crab spaghetti without realizing that the crab had spoiled (something she should have smelled even when the rancid crab was cooked). Ramsay REALLY rips her a new air hole, throws the crab away, and kicks her off the station before removing the crab spaghetti from the menu. She didn't show much reaction or remorse for this, and when she attempted to play the Lethal Chef card on Jen, Ramsay had none of it and kicked her out.
• The Load: Joanna had nothing go right for her throughout the entire competition. The first service she messed up on apps and argued with her teammates, the second service she failed to communicate on lettuce, challenge service she messed up on hashbrowns, and in the final service she not only cooked rancid crab, but tried to play it off like it was no big deal. The only reason she survived as long as she did was due to Tiffany being worse than her on the first night and being on the winning team on the second.
• Manipulative Bitch: She tried to be this, as seen by her main quote, but none of her attempts worked even once.
• Oh, Crap!: Joanna pretty much did this when Vinnie talked back to Ramsay, right before Ramsay labelled Vinnie a "dishonest, two-faced, lazy little fucker".
• Pet the Dog: Despite her behavior she displayed in the season, she did have one surprising moment of kindness when the Red Team decided to nominate Julia after the third service, causing Joanna (who had already been agreed on as the first nominee) to defend Julia and point out that she hadn't done anything wrong during the service. Barely a minute later however, she's trying to throw Jen under the bus for her spaghetti mistake.
• Too Dumb to Live: After Jen admitted to intending to serve up spaghetti that she had previously thrown in the garbage, Joanna started ranting at length about how disgusting Jen's actions were and how she deserved to be sent home. Ramsay interrupted to point out that not only had Joanna made a far worse mistake, by using rotting crabmeat in the spaghetti and, unlike Jen, actually trying to serve it, she had refused to acknowledge that it was a serious mistake. Thus, Joanna ended up being eliminated thanks to her own argument.

Placement: 9th

Joanna's Elimination Comment - "Getting kicked out of Hell's Kitchen is not gonna stop me at all. I think by me coming here made me a lot stronger. I'm ready to strive to be a better person and achieve my ultimate goal of having my own restaurant."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Not only did Joanna serve rancid crab that could've seriously made a customer ill, she completely gave up, screwed her team, and if you can't handle one individual section, you got no chance of running a business."

Aaron Song ^†on November 30th, 2010, he tragically died from diabetes complications

"I'm Aaron. Oh, you already know my name because it's on my shirt!"

Occupation: Retirement Home Chef

Age: 48

Hometown: Rancho Palos Verdes, California

---

• Beginner's Luck: The only thing Aaron got right in his short stay was his Signature Dish, and the only criticism Ramsay had was that there was too much on the plate. Otherwise, he was a weak cook.
• The Bus Came Back: Aaron would go on to make two more appearances during the show, first in Season 4 where he was riding a mechanical bull, and in Season 6 where he told the new chefs "no crying".
• Epic Fail: Somehow on opening night, he wrecked the entire Blue Team's meat supply, making it impossible for them to continue with entrees. They only got lucky that the Red Team did even worse than them that night.
• Gentle Giant: He was a big guy, but was also one of the nicest chefs to come onto the show.
• The Load: Was a really nice guy, but a bad cook, sadly one of the weakest in Season 3. He almost single-handedly caused the Blue Team's loss in the breakfast challenge, which also directly led to his medical exit from the competition.
• Manly Tears: Prior to the first service of the season. Ramsay had to calm him down, and he reappeared in Season 6 telling the new chefs "no crying".
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Fell sick during the punishment for failing the breakfast challenge and was removed from Hell's Kitchen for medical reasons.
• Token Minority: The only Asian person on this season.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Collapsed during the punishment in Episode 3 and had to leave. He was doing pretty well when he was seen in Season 4, which makes his death even sadder.

Placement: 10th (Medical exit)

Aaron's Elimination Comment - "I feel disappointed. I mean, I've worked almost 40 years in a kitchen... for what? I guess I'm coming home."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.

Edward "Eddie" Langley

"I'm a bulldog in a chihuahua's body. What can I say?"

Occupation: Grill Cook

Age: 28

Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia

---

• Bury Your Disabled: Sadly, he was the second-to-last placer.
• Older Than They Look: He was 28 years old, but looked and even sounded like he was 10. However, he establishes that he was born with a kidney disease that stunted his growth early during the Signature Dish Challenge.
• The Quiet One: One of the quieter chefs this season, which led to Rock and Brad jumping onto his station in the second service. It eventually led to Ramsay eliminating him due to that.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Subverted, considering he was the second to be eliminated.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He didn't manage to stand out much before getting eliminated.

Placement: 11th

Eddie's Elimination Comment - "My biggest regret in Hell's Kitchen is just not being loud. I should've just went in full blast and just tore the place apart. Getting kicked off sucks and... But, you know, I did it to myself."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "Eddie's got a big heart. Sadly, he couldn't even hold his own section. He made far too many simple mistakes, and he didn't merit running his own restaurant."

Tiffany Nagel

"(Julia) works in a fucking Waffle House. I mean come on."

Occupation: Kitchen Manager

Age: 27

Hometown: Scottsdale, Arizona

---

• Alpha Bitch: All she cared about was making Julia's life miserable, which made her one of the "Hell's Bitches" troupe members.
• The Bully: Along with Joanna. Both were complete bitches to Julia throughout their time on the show. She whines that Julia was complaining to Ramsay about not able to help (but that was because Tiffany was the one who didn't want her help in the first place) and when Julia called out on how the Red Team's communication skills just plain sucked, Tiffany instead lied.
• Epic Fail: She goes from having a good signature dish...to failing on eggs of all things.
• Establishing Character Moment: The minute you know this girl is a freaking bitch is when she starts picking on Julia. Needless to say no one liked her after that.
• Evil Is Petty: She picks on Julia because of her cooking background even though Julia has done nothing wrong aside from pointing out bad communication errors on the Red Team's side and even complimented her Signature Dish.
• Fatal Flaw: What quickly derailed Tiffany's chances of winning was her stubbornness. In her one and only service, she denied there was a communication issue on the Red Team, and constantly brushed off help from Julia when it came to cooking eggs, something that she had been failing at for a while now. It took Ramsay to finally put Julia on the appetizers, and even then, Tiffany was more annoyed that Julia had to help her than the fact she failed to cook eggs.
• Felony Misdemeanor: In her mind, Julia must go because she's a Waffle House chef. Not because Julia saved her ass in cooking quail eggs, but because she works in a fucking Waffle House.
• Graceful Loser: For all of her faults, she at least took her elimination well, admitting Ramsay made the right choice.
• Hypocrite: Lambasts on Julia "whining" to Ramsay and being a Waffle House chef, yet it's Julia who can cook the quail eggs just right while Tiffany couldn't.
• Jerkass: Between her and Joanna (and later Melissa), it's not hard to see why Ramsay termed the Red Team "Hell's Bitches" for the first half of the season.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Picked on Julia for being a Waffle House chef, but Julia had to bail her out over cooking quail eggs, something that neither she nor the other Red Team members could do. Not to mention that Julia made it to 4th place, got glowing praise from Ramsay himself and the chance to go to culinary school (personally sent by Ramsay himself), while Tiffany was the first cook eliminated from the season and was immediately identified as one of the dumbest cooks of the year. What did she get? Nothing.
• Never My Fault: Doesn't believe that it was her fault for her elimination and doesn't even give two shits on how she treated Julia in that service.
• One-Scene Wonder: Produced one of only two Signature Dishes that impressed Ramsay this season, even getting praise from Julia who also tasted her Signature Dish. She quickly torpedoed her shot at the title though when instead of focusing on her cooking she focused more on putting down Julia.
• Precision F-Strike: The infamous quote regarding Julia as seen above. She was drinking some hard liquor prior to the Confession Cam, though.
• Shadow Archetype: She's a dark, bullying and insulting version of Julia who looks down on others and never admits her faults.
• Smug Snake: Just loved putting Julia down and acting like a total bitch. She didn't get to do it for long since she was the first person out.
• Ungrateful Bitch: To Julia. Julia saved her ass in the quail egg cooking, but she still hates her (and states the infamous quote above) and wants her eliminated. She never admits that she acted like such a bitch at all during her exit.
• Weak, but Skilled: As seen by her highly praised signature dish, Tiffany had some level of talent in the kitchen. Unfortunately, none of that talent transferred over to the kitchen.

Placement: 12th

Tiffany's Elimination Comment - "I had no idea it was gonna be this intense. I don't want to go home, nobody wants to go home, but if he was choosing people on heart, he absolutely made the right decision tonight."

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - "To be a great chef, you need great attention to detail, passion and great work ethic. Tiffany worked hard, but that was it. Nothing else."

"J.R."

"J.R." next to Josh in the Signature Dish Challenge.

---

• Epic Fail: Managed to get himself kicked off the show before the first dinner service due to his antagonistic nature, which was bad enough to get him completely edited out of the season. Not even Season 6's Joseph had been hit with this after his infamous on-air blowup.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that during the Signature Dish Challenge, sometimes there's a guy standing to the left of Josh, and sometimes there isn't. That's J.R., the little known 13th contestant that got kicked off the show and edited out for being the most malicious Jerkass Hell's Kitchen has ever had.
• The Ghost: It took 11 years to even find out about his existence, and a few months after that to find out exactly what he did to get him removed from the show.
• Jerkass: Was apparently such an extreme example that he was scrubbed from the season entirely.
  • He was known for making off-color remarks and being an unprofessional guy in general.
  • What really got him into trouble (and presumably got him taken off the show) was the discovery of him spreading false, harmful rumors about Joanna having an affair with her former boss. To add insult to injury, this was after she initially confided in him after having just gotten out of a toxic relationship at the time of filming.
• Malicious Slander: How he presumably thought he would gain a competitive advantage over the women. Needless to say, he didn't.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination: Was removed from the show at an unknown point in time, likely during or after the Signature Dish Challenge.
• Old Shame: His aforementioned actions were enough for the producers to completely erase all evidence of his participation before the season had aired. Hell's Kitchen has had its share of infamous contestants, but perhaps no other was bad enough to warrant the show's decision to completely disavow them.
• Only Known by Initials: As part of his scrubbing, he is only known by his initials, J.R.
• Rewatch Bonus: Even after remaining completely unknown to viewers for eleven years, a sharp eye can easily make him out in a few frames of Episode 1, as well as thirteen picture frames and a thirteenth dish in the Signature Dish Challenge that goes untasted by Gordon.
• Shortrunner: In-Universe; and perhaps the supreme example of such, surpassing Season 8's Antonia and Season 9's Jason, who both left their respective seasons prior to the first service due to medical reasons.
• The Stoic: In the very few shots of his face we get to see, his expression seems to only shift between "slightly disinterested" and "mildly annoyed".
• Un-person: Was never acknowledged to have existed at all, let alone to have competed.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Went completely unacknowledged for a whopping eleven years and was removed from the series during the filming of Episode 1. Having apparently not even made it past the Signature Dish Challenge where only a few obscure glimpses of him remain, he had perhaps the shortest run of any Hell's Kitchen contestant, period.
• What Could Have Been: Was originally intended to be the thirteenth chef to compete in Season 3. How he would have performed in the competition is anyone's guess.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Was seen briefly in a few shots in Episode 1 where he was unable to be fully covered up. Aside from his hung jacket and burned picture a few episodes later, no further evidence of him was ever seen.

Placement: 13th (Disqualified)

J.R.'s Elimination Comment - No comment.

Ramsay's Elimination Comment - No comment.