There's always at least one chef who seems like a potential finalist at first, but inexplicably goes downhill later on.
General
- A common catalyst seems to be telling the chef to switch to the other team so they can lead and help that team recover. This sometimes sends the chef's ego into overdrive and their overconfidence not only becomes an obstacle to effective teamwork, it also leads to a downward spiral in their performance, due to the chef being in self denial from their inflated self esteem.
Season 1
- Jessica. Next to Ralph, she was the strongest member on the Blue Team and was named Best of The Worst twice. But after the Black Jackets, her performance slipped, and was nominated twice in a row. She ended up in 3rd place after her service dish was only give one vote of satisfaction.
Season 2
- Rachel. Ramsay acknowledged her as being a strong leader on the Red Team... and almost immediately fell apart after Heather got transferred to the Blue Team, ending up in 7th place ultimately.
- Garrett also did comparatively well in the first few services but got gradually worse as the season went on, and then crashed and burned in the first Black Jacket service (may have done even worse had Chef Ramsay not decided to switch him to a different station early on), landing in 5th place.
Season 3
- Melissa, who was the Best of the Worst after the Red Team losing the first service and appeared to be a strong chef and leader, but her ego and attitude took over, and she, too, ended up in 7th place.
Season 4
- Louross, who was the only chef to not be a complete joke in the Blue Team's first service, which stands to this day as one of the worst ever on the show. But, his teammates gradually got better, and he gradually got worse, and he too came in 7th place.
- Giovanni, who set a decay record for this show; he was a consistent performer in almost every service until the first Black Jacket service, when he fell apart spectacularly, by messing up all of his food, accidentally burning Robert's hand, and talking back to Ramsay. This led to him finishing 6th.
- Robert from Season 5 to 6. In Season 5, he was one of the show's leading contenders but pulled out due to health reasons. He returned the next season, but Ramsay realized that he was not as good as before (his health problems came back as well). He was eliminated in the seventh episode, in only 10th place despite making the Final Five before.
- Van was a very strong contender early on. But his last two services, he really sunk on the fish station (despite being a seafood chef) and was the first Black Jacket to be eliminated.
- Tennille started off weak, but Took a Level in Badass. Then she fell apart on her last night and got eliminated without even being nominated.
- Ed managed to rally both teams together in the first service, leading to the show's first successful opening night. But his mistakes kept getting more egregious (especially after he got extremely drunk after a reward which involved wine-tasting), and he got the boot in 6th place.
- Trev zig-zagged on this trope a lot. Started off as weak, then rebounded, then became weaker when moved to the Red Team. When he got transferred back to the Blue Team, he bounced back and managed to finish a service by himself. Then the Black Jackets came, and his performance started to dip and he became very inconsistent.
- Vinny was this too. He usually did well in his first few episodes, apart from the second service, but his last four episodes started a downward spiral that saw him get cut in 7th.
- Krupa, Jonathon, Natalie, Elizabeth and Jennifer.
- Krupa was the best performing cook in the first two episodes, and considered the early front-runner. After that, however, her performances started getting worse and worse, until she got booted out in 11th place. It goes From Bad to Worse when she came back for the finale, where she did such a horrible job that she had been relegated to doing the desserts by the end of the night. But not soon enough as her poor performance killed Will's chance of winning.
- Apart from his signature dish featuring a can of pineapple, Jonathon was one of the better competitors on the Blue Team, especially in the first service, where he did his damnedest to save service with a perfect performance on meat. But he started going down from the fifth service onward, with his mistakes getting worse as his time on the show progressed. He ultimately finished 10th.
- Natalie did well in the first half of the season, where she was one of the only Blue Team chefs who got anything right in the first half of the season, but her performances tanked after the halfway point, finishing 7th.
- Elizabeth was quietly consistent for most of the season, never putting in an outstandingly good performance, but also never making any major mistakes in service (though challenges were another story). Unfortunately, the pressure got to her in the last two Red/Blue Team services and she completely fell apart, getting kicked out in 6th place and just missing out on Black Jackets.
- For the majority of the season, Jennifer was by far and away the best performer on the Red Team, and widely considered the second or third favorite (behind Will, and possibly Paul) to win. Like Elizabeth, however, she eventually crumbled under the pressure and was eliminated in 5th place.
- Brian looked like he was going to make it to the Black Jackets, but then, his performance sharply dropped on his last service, where he was so bad on the meat station that Barbie had to step in and take over. He was eliminated in 7th place.
- While Patrick was criticized for his terrible leadership skills, the night he volunteered to be the Blue Team's leader, he led them to their only service win. But he later ended up making too many simple mistakes, and was booted at 11th place.
Season 11
- Aside from a terrible opening service, Michael looked to be one of the better performing and more sane members of the Blue Team, but finished 9th after easily his worst service and even the women were shocked he left over Zach.
- Zach from Season 11. He seemed to have a lot of promise at first as he was only one of two left in the Blue Team on the first night, yet managed to finish service. While he stayed strong for awhile, halfway through the season his skills suddenly eroded. By the time he left, he had officially become The Load for Jon and Ja'Nel.
- Anthony was also a noticeable example. He had some nice signs of promise at first, being arguably the next most consistent chef on the blue team behind Jon. But then his performance sunk on his final week as he scored 0 out of 4 on the Blind Taste Test and did badly during his final dinner service.
Season 12
- Anton, Melanie, Richard, Gabriel, Kashia, and especially Joy. All six of them suffered badass decay to some degree.
- Anton had a bit of an ego to start with, but he could back it up in the competition, and also proved to be one of the Blue Team's strongest members. However, some time in, his skills nosedived and his ego spiked, causing him to perform terribly on the night where he was moved to the Red Team. His performance improved a bit afterwards... but then he screwed up royally a couple of episodes later, shifting the blame to his teammates and the oven, along with answering back to Sous Chef Andi, and he was soon gone.
- Gabriel wasn't really a Badass to begin with, as he was nominated five times; but in "8 Chefs Compete", he had a perfect service and was considered the Blue Team's MVP. But the next service, he sank on the fish station and was kicked out in the middle of service.
- Kashia proved to be a great chef, especially on meats, early on. But in her last few performances, her temper went haywire, leading to mostly poor performances. She was kicked out in the first Black Jacket service, at 6th place.
- Joy proved to be one of the best chefs from the season, doing nothing but putting up great performance after great performance... until the second Black Jacket service, where she finally started screwing up on the fish station, sending up the fish before the garnishes were complete. This actually led to her taking herself out of the competition, throwing her jacket aside and storming up to the dorms. She had a moment of My God, What Have I Done? soon after, but by then, she was already past the point of no return.
- Melanie proved to be one of the Red (and by extension the Blue) Team's strongest members, giving great performances up and down the block. Then, in the 6th episode, she volunteered to be the leader and out of the blue gave her first bad performance. Her leadership was quiet and generally ineffective, with the Red Team barely knowing that she was there, and was so obsessed with making sure that Kashia's meat was properly cooked, she ignored her own fish and sent it up raw. This came after she looked down upon Anton deciding to be a floater, no less! She's mostly recovered since then, however, aside from sending raw chicken in Episode 16. (She was lucky that Gabriel was far worse that night.) And she made many mistakes on the garnish station in Episode 18 and probably would've been eliminated had it not been for Joy quitting. She had nowhere left to go in the following episode, where she turned in easily the weakest performance of the four chefs who ran the pass, and was eliminated (though not until after Rochelle, surprisingly enough).
Season 13
- This season's iteration of the Red Team suffered a rather rapid case of this. They had the best first service in the history of Hell's Kitchen (at the time), making it through with no more than a minor, easily fixed mistake on the last appetizer. This didn't last, however, as they proceeded to tank in the next two services, with both teams losing the second service and the Red Team outright losing the third. Gordon kept hanging this over them, actively wondering if the first service was a fluke.
- Katie in the first four episodes, while mostly in the background, was never shown making any mistakes, only ever scoring points for her team whenever she did show. But her last two episodes had her go down hard, and her unwillingness to accept responsibility or involve herself in drama led to her elimination in 13th.
- While not the most consistent chef, Sterling was still labeled as a favorite as he displayed some solid leadership skills and could turn in a good performance every once in a while. However, after a bad performance on the fish station in the twelfth service, Ramsay eliminated him without nomination, landing him in 7th place.
- Roe had an exceptionally strong performance on meat in episode one, but became inconsistent after that, becoming an Elimination Houdini who was eliminated in 5th place after six nominations.
Season 14
- Randy and Alison. Randy did very well in services and challenges alike during the first half of the season, but began to slip as the season went on, before having a complete meltdown after Milly "accidentally" screwed up his course in the charity dinner meal, causing Ramsay to eliminate Randy even though the Blue Team won. Alison was extremely competent and consistent throughout the season, only making one or two minor slips at the halfway point, but in the last Red/Blue Team service she suddenly crashed and burned spectacularly on the fish station, resulting in her narrowly failing to get to the Black Jackets.
Season 15
- Sherkenna initially started as a potential front-runner, due to her strong performance in the first service. The very next episode however, she would crash and burn on the fish station, sending her home in 17th.
- Hassan started out strong, only fucking up the dumpling challenge, and even then, the Blue Team (mainly Jared) blamed Frank, his partner. But when he was switched to the Red Team, he started making mistakes in service, and serving raw chicken twice for the guests of honor in Episode 7 caused him to finish 11th and not even get to come back to the final service.
- Chad, while pretty under the radar, was only shown doing well in the first four episodes, but started making mistakes from the fifth challenge onwards, and despite a good first challenge on the Red Team, he went back to sucking, and he was eliminated in 9th place.
- To an extent, Frank. While he was without a doubt one of the most hated chefs of the season, he was one of the stronger chefs of the blue team. As the competition continued on however, he started to make more and more mistakes, and he was unable to pass them off onto others. Also not helping his case was his team turning on him, and being in denial about his performance, landing him in 7th.
- Jared seemed to be one of the best chefs at first, but became more and more inconsistent as time went on, eventually being eliminated in fourth place.
Season 16
- Johnny went through this in near record time. Starting off with a good signature dish and being one of the only sane chefs on the Blue Team after a disaster of a first night, he very quickly started to become weak in challenges, and his attitude dropped shortly thereafter, becoming one of the show's biggest bullies. He was eliminated in 12th place.
- Shaina was one of the strongest chefs on the Red Team in the beginning, but in the couple of episodes before her switch to the Blue Team, she declined in performances. She did become better after the switch (being the team's Only Sane Man in her first service on the Blue Team), but soon started slipping up again, and was eliminated in tenth place. Ramsay even cited this as one of the reasons she was eliminated in Episode 10.
- A similar scenario happened with Ryan. Like Shaina before her, she was shifted to the depleted Blue Team in the hopes of salvaging a sinking ship yet almost immediately began struggling. Unlike her predecessor, however, she took her mistakes more gracefully and managed to steer herself back around, eventually coming back on top and winning the season.
- Kimberly was one of the most consistent chefs of the season, behind only the Final Three and generally performing well throughout services and challenges. However, in the first Black Jacket service, she screwed up several times on appetizers and struggled in acting as sous chef, resulting in her Heroic BSoD and nearly giving up on the spot, which contributes to her elimination that night. She fares just as badly in the finale, where she sends up raw rib-eye multiple times to the pass, to the point where Heather has to replace her with Devin and place her on desserts instead.
Season 17 (All Stars)
- This season had chefs from previous seasons come back for another chance. But not everyone kept up their skills in the off seasons.
- Josh could not keep the same strength he had in Season 14, and his poor performances eventually lead to Ramsay eliminating him during service.
- The returning chefs from Season 15 were all The Load on their teams to differing degrees. It would seem like it would just be due to comparatively they were just not as notable as their fellow All Stars, but that wasn't the case. Manda was the weakest link on the Red Team by far and only survived as long as she did due to some lucky breaks, making really embarrassing mistakes. Ashley was just not invested at all, although she later admitted her grandfather was in critical condition. Jared in particular seemed to be hit the hardest, outside of his first dish he was abysmal during challenges and passable during service. Ignoring his infamous lying about a cut to get out of service when he was backed up and failing the Blue Team. The fact that Season 15 was tied for second most competitors to return as All Stars and for the highest ranked of them to get 11th place in this season is... quite telling.
- Many fans had high hopes for Van due to his unique skills with seafood and his charismatic personality. However, on the episode with the reward trip to Vegas, he was controversially eliminated for "losing his voice", a.k.a. not communicating from his station, during a service where the Red Team performed arguably far worse. Some fans believe this to be Executive Meddling, but that's more theory.
- Dana began the season as a favorite to earn a Black Jacket, somewhat due to her friendship with the Red Team's sous chef Christina; but she never established herself as a vocal leader and received little airtime during services, eventually getting eliminated in 8th place for repeatedly burning wellingtons. Ramsay himself even pointed out that she had never once been nominated in either season up until that point.
- Milly was a popular pick to win the whole thing, but after the Black Jackets were handed out, he started slacking off during punishments and service, and his lack of finesse and "professionalism" was exposed. To address this, Ramsay offered him an all-expenses paid stage at one of his restaurants in London after eliminating him right before the finale.
- After being switched to the Blue Team, Robyn went on a hot streak during challenges and took on a much more likable attitude. But she got eliminated for a lack of composure during her final two services and for trying to pick a fight with Milly. The trend continued when she returned for the final service, as her abysmal performance on the meat station and lack of respect towards Benjamin and Chef Ramsay was the reason Benjamin came in second.
Season 18 (Rookies Vs. Veterans)
- Kevin was the runner-up in Season 6, but had a disastrous performance on lamb in the third dinner service and even though he and Trev were transferred to the Red Team, making that team an all-male team, Kevin had problems with fish in the following dinner service (partly caused by Scotley's communication issues), and Ramsay eliminated Kevin, believing that Kevin had lost the passion he had in Season 6.
- And in the next episode, T, who was the runner-up in Season 14, had a massive dip in performance in both the challenge, where she scored a low 3, and in service, where she kept sending up raw and overcooked meat while refusing to communicate with Heather. That led to her elimination that night.
- Gizzy started off as one of the strongest Rookies, alongside Mia and Kanae. But after the fourth service, where she ended up in trouble for abandoning tableside to help chefs that didn't ask, she lost the confidence she came in with lots of, and her performances drained as a result, finally getting eliminated in 11th in the Cook For Your Life challenge.
Season 19 (Las Vegas)
- Amber who many thought would be an early frontrunner due to her no nonsense attitude and being consistent until she got sent to the Blue Team. While she ultimately made it to 5th, she never again became a winner's pick for anyone, displaying inconsistency and over-emotional behavior throughout.
Season 20 (Young Guns)
- The Red Team had the best start to a season by winning the first three challenges and first two dinner services, making it seem they would steamroll the Blue Team. But after the team switch, they began to sink. Hard. They failed to win a single service over the Blue Team and some of their consistent members (Morgana and Josie) began making mistakes that led to more defeats. Another reason could be that Ramsay gave the Blue Team stronger women (Megan and Emily) which helped them out while giving the Red Team the more inconsistent male chefs (Payton and Sam). But ultimately, this was a team that had a strong start to a season, but failed to keep it up after the chef rotations occurred.
- On a single chef note, Kiya was one of the more consistent chefs of the season and made it to the top three without a single nomination to her name before being axed in the final elimination challenge. But come the final dinner service, she struggled more than she should have and nearly costed Trenton his victory.
- While Kevin wasn't a stand out chef on the blue team, he performed well enough to make it by for the first six episodes. However, he crashed and burned in Episode 7, costing the blue team a challenge win and getting eliminated in the middle of service.
Season 21 (Battle of the Ages)
- The 20-Somethings started off strong by curb stomping the 40-Somethings making it seem they would all be around by the second half of the season. But as usual, some of them started to struggle and make the same mistakes they mocked the 40-Somethings for doing. Some of theses chefs include:
- Vlad. While cocky and arrogant, he was able to back up his words well, getting a five out of five in the Signature Dish Challenge and being one of the stronger chefs on the 20-Somethings team. After the team switch however, Vlad would start making more and more mistakes, usually due to him failing to respond to call-outs and making mistakes on proteins. This would continue until his elimination, after mistaking a cake tester for a meat thermometer.
- Brett had a strong start on the Red Team and even helped the Blue Team win two challenges after the team switch. But when he went back to the Red Team, his performance dropped immensely and he ended up being carried by the women in the next two challenges and services. Although Ramsay gave him one more chance to improve by moving him back to the Blue Team, he failed on Charity Night and was eliminated.
- Cheyenne was the most consistent member of the Red Team and was never in danger of elimination. But then came the first Black Jacket service where she imploded and failed on the fish station, leading to her elimination. Though in this case, Cheyenne suffered an accident during a reward before service began and did not recover in time before service began.
Season 22 (The American Dream)
- Melissa got off to a strong start, scoring a 4 on the Signature Dish challenge and then winning the Punishment Pass on the next episode, both of which marked her as an early favorite. However, her morale tanked hard after Christina caught her lying during a punishment, and she began to resent her teammates for not backing her up. This led to her developing a severe case of Bystander Syndrome as she began to focus solely on herself and not lift a finger to help her teammates. This caught the eye of Chef Ramsay, and she ended up being the fourth boot for being a quitter.
- After being consistent chefs throughout the season, Johnathan, Leigh, and Dahmere crashed and burned on garnish, meat, and fish respectively in the first black jacket service, resulting in the latter two both going home.
