Hell's Kitchen (American season 14)

Twenty initial contestants arrived at Hell's Kitchen, only to find that the doors to the restaurant are locked, much to their confusion. They then saw Ramsay on the roof of Hell's Kitchen. He told them through a megaphone that he wanted to see how committed they are to being there by jumping off the roof before they can enter and asked for volunteers. After two contestants (Ruth and Enrique) have jumped off the roof it was revealed that both of them were actually stuntmen, and not real contestants. Ramsay said how happy he is that everyone volunteered, asking the real contestants to get into Hell's Kitchen and cook their signature dish.

Team challenge/signature dish: Once again, the teams were divided into men (blue) versus women (red), with both teams cooking in front of a live audience, similar to the signature dish challenge from the previous season, only this time taking place inside Hell's Kitchen itself. The dishes were scored on a scale of 1–5, with 1 being a disaster, and 5 being a "truly outstanding dish". Despite the women having two 5-point dishes by Meghan and T, they were hugely let down by 1's from Mieka, Chrissa, and Monique, who served pasta with jarred tomato sauce and argued with Ramsay about it in front of the audience, which sealed the 31–28 win for the men, their first time winning the signature dish challenge since Season 9.

Reward/punishment: The men rode a hummer limousine to Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach, where they met William Shatner and Billy Sherwood, exciting particularly Brendan and Michael. Shatner also handed out the menu books, which he autographed. The women stayed behind to reset the dining room for dinner service in addition to folding, stuffing and sealing stacks of Hell's Kitchen reservation confirmation letters. During the punishment, T argued with Monique about using jarred sauce, which the women believed had ruined their chances of winning.

Service: Right before dinner service, Chrissa was making her team unsure of her as she seemed unfocused, and asked Ramsay if she could go to the bathroom. In attendance for opening night were Dean McDermott, Michael Ohoven, Joyce Giraud and Delanie Walker. Josh and T were also serving tableside. Chrissa didn't do much and wandered around a lot, gradually becoming a distraction to her team until Ramsay ordered her to go and help T on tableside while Meghan took over on garnish, after which appetizers got out quickly. Cameron had problems seasoning the risotto, needing Nick's help. Michael sent boiled scallops after taking a long time to cook them, but rebounded. On entrees, Bret and Milly recovered after serving up a raw lamb and the men finished the first service, leaving Ramsay fairly happy with their performance. The same could not be said for the women; Christine and Monique served raw lamb and dry pork chop for McDermott's table because Monique didn't realize her oven wasn't on. When they finally managed to cook the lamb correctly, the pork was raw. When Ramsay saw them joined by Alison, Meghan, Mieka, and T on meat yet still weren't able to push it out, he ejected the women, marking the first time since Season 7 that the men won the opening dinner service.

Elimination: While the rest of the women deliberated, Chrissa broke a glass trying to make coffee, leading her teammates to believe she was in over her head and not taking her place in Hell's Kitchen seriously. Monique and Chrissa were ultimately nominated, but Ramsay also personally called out Christine. Ramsay ultimately eliminated Chrissa for being out of her element on the signature dish, before dinner service, during dinner service, and even while she was being eliminated, as she originally wandered off towards the exit without giving Ramsay her jacket. This marked the first time since Season 8, where a member of the red team was eliminated on opening night.

Chrissa's comment: "I'm not gonna cry, because I know I'm too good for this shit. But it's very heartbreaking, because I know I'm a beast in the kitchen. Chef Ramsay asks this before dinner service, 'Are you okay?' That makes me weak, because I pee? Maybe I am a little quirky and different, but... I don't know what to tell you. It is who I am."

Team challenge: Both teams were brought to a local marina, where they each had to retrieve 20 crabs, which were already trapped. This also meant that most of them had to in fact learn how to navigate a rowboat; the men coped with this better, getting back first and earning themselves a 30-second head start for the next part of the challenge, where the teams were split into pairs to present 10 perfect crab cake dishes after they shucked, sautéed, and plated them. Milly, Nick, and Adam worked as a trio due to the men having an extra member. Despite the men's head-start, the women won 10-7, due to Michael and Bret only presenting one plate because of Michael's sluggishness. T and Michelle were the stand-out performers, single-handedly getting four dishes accepted by Ramsay.

Reward/punishment: The women flew to Scottsdale, Arizona with Marino, where they went horseback riding and had dinner at Talavera at the Four Seasons Resort. The men had to peel shrimp and prep clams and lobsters for the next service's special. During the punishment, Cameron attempted to dictate the others and Josh bluntly told him to back off. Just before service started, Ramsay caught Michael looking over the risotto recipe, and berated him for not having already learned the recipe by heart. Mieka also worried her team due to not knowing the recipes for garnish.

Service: Guests in attendance were Jai Rodriguez, and Workaholics actors Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm. Milly did well on hot appetizers, but Michael sent out a beet salad when it wasn't on the ticket. Cameron sent up raw and overcooked scallops, so Ramsay showed Cameron how to cook scallops to perfection. However, Cameron said having Ramsay in the kitchen only made him more nervous and intimidated; Brendan, his partner on the station, eventually helped him complete his first dish. Brendan and Cameron later burned salmon and were forced to eat it. Michael took over the station in the meantime, but Brendan undercooked scallops when he returned to the station, leading to all three of them being thrown out. Minutes later, the rest of team was ejected after Nick and Josh didn't know what was on order. The women started off smoothly thanks to T's vocal leadership on the appetizer section, though this irritated Monique who found T overbearing. On entrees, Alison and Michelle gave conflicting reports to Ramsay on meat, so T ended up having to step in and supervise them as well. Mieka got completely overwhelmed on garnish and struggled to communicate with the other stations, needing Meghan's help to get back on track. Eventually, the women rallied and were named winners for completing their dinner service. The men had to come up with two nominees for elimination.

Elimination: The men nominated Cameron and Michael, while also considering Brendan. Despite Ramsay being annoyed with Michael's lack of preparedness for service, he ultimately eliminated Cameron for his poor performance on the fish station, and for admitting he was intimidated by Ramsay during service.

Cameron's comment: "I really, really, really wanted to win and show everybody that I'm a good cook, I'm a great person, and I deserve it. You know, I buckled under the pressure. I was intimidated, and I lost my sense of cooking, and it cost me. I'm not as smart as I think I am, I guess."

Team challenge: After an early morning wake-up call from Sous Chef James, the teams were brought outside Hell's Kitchen, where two ponds of icy water had been set up; one containing fish heads, and one containing fish bodies. The teams were split into pairs and each had to match up the heads and bodies of a particular fish; the men accomplished this first, and were given a five-minute head-start to cook dishes using one of the four varieties of fish. The four dishes of each type of fish were to be judged against each other by Ramsay and Chef Michael Cimarusti, who would award the best dishes a point. Bret, Mieka, and Sarah scored on trout, salmon, and cod respectively to give the women a 2-1 lead. On the final round, Michelle's and Alison's halibut dishes were deemed mediocre, and both Milly's and Adam's were well-liked. However, Cimarusti noticed that both of the men's dishes used the exact same side of rice, and the two men admitted that due to Adam being unable to cook his intended risotto side in time, Milly allowed him to borrow some spare rice. Ramsay deemed this to be in violation of the challenge rules, however, automatically disqualifying Milly and Adam. Michelle's dish was chosen to receive the final point, as it was slightly better than Alison's, giving the women a 3–1 win.

Reward/punishment: The women headed to Manhattan Beach where they received surfing lessons from Anastasia Ashley and had lunch. The men hand-prepped fish for dinner service and had peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches for lunch (which Bret refused to eat, as he felt he should be exempt due to scoring the blue team's only point). When Sous Chef James announced that lunch would be served soon, Michael misunderstood him, thinking it was lunchtime, and went upstairs to make himself something to eat, until James brought him back downstairs. While prepping the fish, Randy accidentally cut his finger to the bone and went to the hospital to get stitches, though he returned in time for dinner service.

Service: In addition to Ashley, guests in attendance were Jay Williams and Samm Levine. Both teams had very rocky services. The women were backed up from the start by Mieka failing to produce an acceptable risotto, while T burned a flatbread pizza, and Alison and Monique overcooked scallops and blamed each other. After Christine and Mieka brought up a dry risotto and overcooked pasta on the final table of appetizers, the entire team was ejected; Sarah made the situation worse by asking under her breath if they could try again. In the men's kitchen, Adam had a scallop salad returned for containing a piece of plastic. Michael let Milly do his work on garnish cooking flatbreads and also made an extremely dangerous mistake by heating up a pan to the point where it was smoking hot, then leaving it on top of the cold pans under the fish station; Ramsay angrily told Michael that had Bret or Josh unknowingly grabbed the pan, they could have sustained a third-degree burn. On entrees, Nick twice sent up raw pork and argued that he would have eaten it. The team managed to get some of their entrees out, but then Michael brought up the garnishes for a rack of lamb far too early. Nick brought up the lamb, which was totally raw, and got the entire team thrown out.

Elimination: For the first time in the history of Hell's Kitchen, Ramsay went up to the dorms to demand two people for elimination from each team. The women nominated Christine and Mieka, while the men nominated Michael and Nick, also considering Adam for his plastic in the scallop salad. Ramsay eliminated Michael for being a consistently poor performer, and especially because of his mistake with the hot pan. He then warned the remaining chefs, that the next time he had a dinner service as bad as that, more than one person could possibly be eliminated.

Michael's comment: "The Michelin star, you know, it's not my thing, I guess. I can go back to where I was at the senior center. I think Nick and Adam are liabilities. You know, serving raw pork, serving plastic in a salad... I made one mistake. I don't feel that should have sent me home."

Team challenge: After the chefs spent the night playing drinking games, which Bret refused to take part in, they were brought to a football field, where they were told that they would be preparing classic American comfort foods (spaghetti, burgers, pizzas, and macaroni and cheese) for their next challenge. The chefs worked in pairs except for Randy. Each chef caught footballs, which would determine the ingredients they got to use for their dishes, before returning to Hell's Kitchen to prepare their dishes in 40 minutes, which would be judged by Chefs Suzanne Goin and David Burke. Bret's pizza earned the first two points over Michelle's. Meghan's burger easily defeated Randy's, which was dry and overcooked, tying the scores. Josh beat out Alison on macaroni and cheese, as the latter made the questionable decision to serve it in a bun, and also undercooked it. In the final round, Sarah's seemingly complicated spaghetti, lobster, and prosciutto dish was deemed outstanding over Brendan's carbonara, not only winning the points, but being used as a tie-breaker and resulting in the women winning their third successive challenge.

Reward/punishment: The women went sailing and had lunch on the American Pride, where they were joined by Ramsay. The men had to peel over 500 pounds of onions, in addition to preparing both kitchens for family night. Bret remained visibly angry throughout the punishment, and nearly provoked a major argument with his teammates after he openly accused them of being content to lose the challenges.

Service: For the family night service, many of the comfort foods cooked in the previous challenge were on the menu. Brendan cooked a risotto that was far too small, and Bret attempted to recycle that risotto into a new one; Ramsay angrily threatened to throw them out if they attempted anything like that again. The rest of the appetizers went without any major hiccups, and entrees initially went well, despite Ramsay accusing Milly of working too slowly. When Adam and Nick overcooked New York strip and salmon, the entire team was forced to eat them. After that, the men completed service, although Ramsay nevertheless labelled their performance embarrassing and pathetic. The women got through appetizers without much trouble except for Sarah burning scallops and Michelle needlessly adding extra salt to Alison's macaroni and cheese, rendering it inedible. However, things rapidly fell apart on entrees thanks to Mieka and Monique repeatedly serving up raw wellingtons and steaks. Mieka constantly asked the others their opinions on the temperature of a New York strip, wasting so much time that it became overcooked. To make matters worse, it was the last New York strip they had, making it impossible for them to finish service. Ramsay angrily ejected the team, after which Sous Chef Andi informed him that Sarah had served up a raw burger, which an irate Ramsay brought out to the team in the corridor, before telling the women to decide on two nominees for elimination.

Elimination: While the women agreed that Mieka and Monique had been the two worst performers of night, T suggested nominating Monique and Sarah, hoping Ramsay would eliminate Monique. Monique informed Ramsay of the team's plan to rig the elimination, but Ramsay called her and Sarah down anyway, before sending them back in line and eliminating Mieka for struggling in three straight services and lacking confidence in herself.

Mieka's comment: "Holy shit. I did not see that one coming. I don't believe that what happened tonight was fair. Monique did deserve to go home. But, you know, life isn't fair. Some people just get lucky."

Team challenge: The teams were called down to the dining room, where they were presented with a huge array of cheeses. Each member picked one member from the opposite team they wanted to go up against, who would then spin the wheel to determine what cheese dish the would be making. Then, they would have to make it with one of the international cheeses that suit their dish the most. Tied 4-4 going into the final round, T beat Bret on calzone due to the latter's having raw dough, resulting in the women winning their fourth consecutive challenge, 5-4.

Reward/punishment: The women went jet skiing in Marina Del Ray, while the men had to break pieces off of a huge Parmesan cheese wheel, then grate the cheese, which would then be served as that night's tableside appetizer.

Service: Alison and Nick served a Parmesan frica tableside appetizer. Daddy Yankee and Dave Mustaine both appeared as guests for this service. The women started off well thanks to Meghan's strong leadership on appetizers, but were soon backed up by Monique undercooking and underseasoning spinach and eggplant. Meghan jumped on the garnish section, but in her absence, Sarah undercooked risotto, while Christine also undercooked salmon. Ramsay brought the team into the pantry to give them a final warning, only for Christine's next order of salmon to turn out burnt, leading to the whole team being ejected. In the men's kitchen, Adam served risotto stuck to the pan, but recovered. Bret also overcooked their first order of salmon, but likewise got his remaining orders out correctly. Brendan struggled to communicate times on meat, overcooking lamb before holding up the kitchen for fifteen minutes on the refire. After this, the men finished dinner service. Ramsay was so disgusted by the women's performance that he sent Sous Chef Andi up to the dorms to tell them to nominate two people for elimination.

Elimination: The women quickly decided on Monique as the first nominee, and went with Sarah as the second nominee despite also considering Christine. Ramsay criticized Sarah for not bouncing back, but eliminated Monique for her refusal to admit her mistakes, being totally shunned by her team, and lack of improvement over five services.

Monique's comment: "Clearly, these bitches didn't like me since day one. I wouldn't do anything different, because I'm not gonna change who I am to make these bitches happy. We're not here to like each other, we're here to bang out dinner service and get shit done. There's no way I'm the worst cook here, like, are you serious? It's so fucking stupid that I'm standing here right now."

Team challenge: The teams were tasked to cook lunch for current and retired firefighters who were in the middle of their charity ride to commemorate their friends. Both teams started reasonably well, though the women were held up slightly by Sarah's slowness at dressing the salads. Milly and T held up their respective teams by serving up raw chicken (which luckily Sarah noticed for the women). While Milly was quickly able to regroup and get the chicken out correctly, T and Sarah continued to struggle, before Meghan helped them get the orders cooked perfectly. The women soon found their rhythm and began catching up to the men, but the men finished one ticket ahead and won their second challenge of the season, ending their four-challenge losing streak.

Reward/punishment: The men headed to Malibu for a private safari tour at Saddlerock Ranch, followed by lunch and wine tasting with Ramsay at the vineyard. During their lunch, their server turned out to be Nick's ex-girlfriend, much to the surprise of his teammates, as he is openly gay. The women had to clean the fire trucks and prep over 400 chicken wings for the next dinner service. During the punishment, Meghan dragged the women into the pantry and angrily accused them of not putting as much effort into service as she did. While the others (especially Alison) felt somewhat insulted by Meghan insinuating they were unworthy to work with her, Ramsay felt that she was showing the passion needed to lead the team, and told her to step up in service. In a deleted scene, the women also had to eat two full buckets of chili with one being six-alarm hot and the other being less hotter. Sarah didn't eat as much as the others and Meghan revealed she is lactose intolerant.[10]

Service: T and Bret were assigned tableside service, with Marino emphasizing the importance of talking to and entertaining the customers, something that Bret found himself having to do a lot, due to his team's struggles, when he entertained guest Bree Turner. The men were stalled out of the gate by Nick overcooking scallops twice, and things got worse on the entrees. Nick and Brendan were thrown out for undercooking salmon and halibut, while Josh was also thrown out for undercooking Wellington and lamb. After this, they rallied and successfully finished service, with Randy earning praise from Ramsay after taking over meat from Josh. In the women's kitchen, Christine served a bland, undercooked risotto, while Sarah also struggled to get the garnishes out. Meghan took it on herself to supervise both stations, as well as handling the fish. While her abrasive leadership continued to annoy her teammates, the women got through the rest of the service without a single dish being rejected, and with Meghan and Alison doing especially well on the fish and the meat stations. As a result, Ramsay deemed the women to be the clear winners, and told the men to nominate two for elimination.

Elimination: The team very quickly decided on the two fish station chefs, Brendan and Nick, and Brendan's arguing of the decision resulted in a heated argument between him and Milly. Ramsay eliminated Brendan for refusing to admit to his errors on fish, along with his consistently mediocre performances.

Brendan's comment: "I think Milly thinks I'm someone that I'm not. I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But I'm definitely not the worst cook here. There's kids in there that should be washing dishes in my restaurant. Chef Ramsay definitely made the wrong call tonight. His loss."

After dismissing the teams, Ramsay called out Josh and warned him that he was not stepping up as a leader, and that he needed to be more assertive. Josh subsequently went into the dorms and gave himself a lengthy motivational speech, much to the bemusement of the other chefs.

Team challenge: The chefs assembled in the dining room and were given a display of Greek dancing, setting the theme for the next challenge. The chefs each chose a protein to cook a Greek dish with, and were given seven minutes to break plates, which would determine their other ingredients, followed by 40 minutes to cook their dishes. Ramsay and Chef Michael Psilakis would both award each chef between 1 and 5 points. Alison beat Josh 6-2 on lamb; Josh's dish had blood on the plate and the judges refused to taste it. Bret beat Michelle 8-3 on prawns, as the judges questioned Michelle's pairing of prawns with kiwi fruit sauce. Meghan beat Milly 9-6 on squid, but Randy beat T 10-7 on chicken, despite his lack of experience with Greek cuisine. Adam also scored a perfect 10 on pork, though's Christine 8 kept the women in contention. In the final round, Sarah's swordfish dish got 7 points, with the judges noting that it would likely have been a 10 with only a little more seasoning; this left Nick needing 5 points to win, and despite overcooking his swordfish quite badly, he still managed to earn the required number of points to win, giving the men a 41-40 victory.

Reward/punishment: The men went go-kart racing at K1 Speed, with 2013 Miss California Mabelynn Capeluj hosting their reward. The women had to pick up all the pieces from the broken plates and clean both kitchens for that night's service. Sarah spent most of the punishment wandering around trying to find a place to plug in a vacuum cleaner, much to the annoyance of her teammates. Before service, Ramsay pulled Milly, who was having a crisis of confidence about his level of experience, into the pantry for a pep-talk.

Service: In addition to Capeluj, Erik Palladino was also a guest for this service. Josh and Michelle were assigned tableside service, preparing an octopus appetizer. The men got through the appetizers without any major problems, thanks to Nick. On entrees, Randy added too much cream to mashed potatoes and then tried to deny being responsible for it, causing a lengthy argument among the team. Milly served poorly sliced wellingtons, and Adam used far too much oil to fry the fish. Meghan and T were flawless on appetizers, but Alison served raw lobster and burned her poaching butter, forcing her to make a new batch and further holding up the team. They disintegrated on the entrees as Christine served raw and then burnt eggplant, needing Meghan to help her, while Sarah served raw wellingtons and overcooked lamb. Ramsay ejected the women after Sarah overcooked lamb and burned chicken while Christine served garlicky lentils, before calling in the men to finish their remaining eight tables.

Elimination: The women nominated Sarah and Christine, though briefly considered Alison for her early problems on the fish station. Sarah asked to be transferred to the men's team; Ramsay denied her request and eliminated her for her succession of terrible performances in service.

Sarah's comment: "It's hard to cook in a situation where people just don't care about you. These women didn't have my back, and I didn't stand up for myself enough. This was the opportunity of a lifetime, and I blew it. Performance speaks for itself, and I wasn't able to step up."

Team challenge: Each team member was given 45 minutes to create a dish out of an alcoholic beverage, either beer, wine or liquor. Their dish would then be judged by Ramsay, Marino, and John Ratzenberger. When the chefs were done cooking, the judges announced they were only tasting three dishes from each team (one beer, one wine, one liquor) on a scale from 1-5. Michelle's chocolate beer soufflé scored 11 points, while Nick's sweet potato donut with a beer and caramel sauce still earned a respectable 10. Alison's ribeye with port wine sauce and Adam's lamb with wine and poached pear reduction each earned 10 points as well. In the liquor round, Meghan's pan seared duck breast got praise for the presentation, but only scored 9 points due to lack of acidity. Josh's grilled pork scored 11 points, clinching a 31-30 win for the men.

Reward/punishment: The men went roller skating at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale and had lunch with Sous Chef James at the Golden Road Brewery. The women had to steam, starch, and iron tablecloths in addition to washing the silverware.

Bret's exit: The next day, while both teams were prepping for dinner service, Bret took a bathroom break, during which he aggravated an existing slipped disc (though this could have happened while he was skating as he fell on his back). He was escorted to the dorm by his teammates to rest, but when Ramsay found out about his injury, he went up to the dorms, and told Bret he could not continue in the competition as it could lead to permanent back injuries, but praised him for his hard work and determination. Bret did not receive a coat-hanging and picture-burning sequence, but his burned picture was seen next to Nick's. Bret would return to Hell's Kitchen for Season 18. When Ramsay informed the chefs of Bret's departure, Nick remained unsympathetic, calling it a "blessing in disguise," as he had one less opponent to compete against.

Bret's comment: "You know, it's my life, it's my passion, but I'm worried about the present and the near future. You know, at this point in time, this is the end. I got a lot of support, that's why I'm not gonna fucking stop doing what I'm doing here."

Service: Chef's tables were featured during gastro-pub night. The men had Fred Willard in their kitchen, while Jaleel White sat in the women's kitchen. In addition, Meghan and Milly handled beer steamed razor clam tableside appetizers. Far East Movement were also in attendance. The women had an almost flawless service except for Christine getting confused over what appetizer was on order, and Alison serving raw lamb and then blaming it on Michelle, but both of them recovered quickly. The same could not be said for the men. Adam on meat struggled to communicate with Randy on fish, falling behind on New York strip when Randy's fish and chips were ready. Randy brought scallops before Josh's risotto was ready and burned fish and chips. After Adam overcooked and undercooked lamb while Randy sent soggy fish, Ramsay ejected the men and told them to nominate two people for elimination, while the women would finish their service.

Elimination: The men nominated Adam and Randy due to their problems on their respective stations. Ramsay also nominated Josh for not taking any initiative to support Adam on the meat station. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Adam for being the main reason the men lost dinner service and was also disappointed that he did not bounce back.

Adam's comment: "Tonight definitely was my opportunity to step up. That meat station was the place to be. I wanted to bang it out of the park, but it was a disaster of epic proportions. It was just one of those things where you get caught in that quicksand, and you can't get back out. You know, I think Chef Ramsay expected more of me, I expected more of myself. Unfortunately, this is where I ended up."

Team challenge: Ramsay revealed an exotic protein from each dome. The first person from each team who grabbed the meat first would cook with it in 40 minutes and present their dish for Ramsay and Chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, who would then score each dish on a scale of 1 to 5. Since Michelle didn't pick her protein, she chose alligator. Alison beat Nick 8-6 on elk, despite her dish's poor presentation, as Nick's dish is underseasoned. Meghan beat Josh 8-7 on wild boar, as Josh's dish was undercooked, and the cauliflower over-powered the rest of the dish. T beat Milly 11-9 on alligator, and Randy beat Christine 12-6 on the final round, ostrich, as Christine's dish was deemed too bland and too safe, giving the men a 34-33 win. Ramsay asked Michelle to bring the judges her alligator dish that was dropped in favor of T's. The judges concluded that it was the best dish of the day, and would have received a perfect score of 15.

Reward/punishment: The men were rewarded with a spa day at The Lounge Spa in Culver City. The women had to deep clean both kitchens. For lunch, they had milkshakes consisting of leftover exotic proteins from the challenge except for the alligator that Michelle ended up with; she was given a regular milkshake.

Meetings: Ramsay met with each chef individually, giving them feedback on their performance, as well as advice for the rest of the competition. He asked each chef to rank the rest of their team. After the evaluations, he announced that the bottom-ranked chef from each team would compete in Hell's Kitchen's second "Cook for Your Life" challenge with the loser being eliminated. These were Randy for the men, and Christine for the women.

Cook for your life: Randy and Christine made a few small errors, but overall prepared acceptable dishes. However, Christine forgot the tomato confit in the risotto dish and attempted to make her own base for the bread pudding instead of using the base Ramsay had prepared, causing it to turn out very dry. These factors led to her elimination.

Christine's comment: "I am very disappointed to leave Hell's Kitchen. I don't think I was the worst chef on the red team, but it's competition, and people are gonna point fingers, and I definitely was the easy target. But it was a great experience for me. I've learned so much from Chef Ramsay, and I had Michelin-starred chefs trying my dishes on a daily basis. I feel like I am 50 times better of a chef after coming here."

Team challenge: The next dinner service was Calabasas High School's homecoming dinner where the theme was Mardi Gras. For their next challenge, both teams had 35 minutes to create a menu of one seafood appetizer, one chicken entrée, and one beef entrée to be judged by the homecoming committee. Milly scored over Alison and T on the appetizer, while Meghan scored over Randy on the chicken entrée by making fresh pasta. The beef entree was the tie-breaker; Nick and Josh scored over Michelle to give the men their fifth challenge victory in a row.

Reward/punishment: The men attended a show at Pirate's Dinner Adventure in Buena Park, while the women had to decorate the dining room and make bead necklaces for all 200 guests from scratch, with the homecoming committee supervising them. During the punishment, T accused Michelle of trying to fit in with the homecoming committee and worrying too much about what T was doing instead of focusing on herself.

Service: Both teams had a few speed bumps during the appetizer stage. In the women's kitchen, T accidentally started a fire on the fish station, and Michelle held up an otherwise complete table with sliders. In the men's kitchen, Josh served alcoholic risotto and then undercooked pasta. On entrees, Milly forgot to turn the stoves on, and then served up raw snappers. Randy forgot to add the lobster to his sauce for the entree, but after that, the service went smoothly. In the women's kitchen, Meghan threw Michelle off the meat station even though Michelle originally was on there, thus forcing Michelle to switch to garnish. T overcooked red snapper, but quickly recovered. Alison tried to lead the team, but only managed to annoy them by saying the words "all day" repeatedly; regardless, they finished without further incident. Ramsay said that both teams did well, but gave the women the win in a close decision and asked the men to nominate their two weakest members.

Team change: After much deliberation, Josh and Randy were nominated. When Ramsay asked Josh who he thought was the weakest, he accused Nick of hiding behind the other people on the team. Ramsay decided to send Randy back in line and told Josh to give him his jacket, only to swap him to the women in exchange for Meghan, hoping she could whip them into shape, much to their delight.

Team challenge: The teams participated in the annual Blind Taste Test, where each chef had to identify ingredients only by taste and nothing else. The dunk-tanks from the previous season returned. Milly scored a perfect four out of four (only done once before by Justin Antiorio in Season 10), and Meghan scored three, but Nick and Randy each only identified one, so they both got each other dunked. For the red team, Josh scored three, while the others each scored two. With the score tied 9-9, Josh and Milly were brought forward to break the tie in a sudden death match. Josh won for the red team by identifying avocado, giving them a 10-9 victory and ending their five-challenge losing streak.

Reward/punishment: The red team were rewarded with a lunch at Petrossian, where they got to sample caviar, followed by a $500 shopping spree at Kitson. The blue team had to make sangria (including preparing all of the fruit) and bring in tabletops to the dining room for that night's service.

Service: This service was a special charity service for two different charities. The red team cooked for Fran Drescher's "Cancer Schmancer" which includes the members plus Drescher, Ray Abruzzo and Peter Marc Jacobson, while the blue team cooked for members from Stand Up Women's Network including Amy Davidson. Each chef was assigned to lead their team through a course. Alison got her risotto out without any problems, but Randy cooked portions in separate pans, leading to them being seasoned differently, and then didn't notice that Milly accidentally put out 16 plates instead of the 12 required. Milly led the tuna nicoise course without any major problems, aside from Nick being caught wiping a plate with a dirty rag. However, the red team overcooked all of their tuna, mostly due to Josh ignoring Alison's warnings that it was going to be overcooked, and was forced to retrieve some leftover tuna from the blue team. Josh then continually tried to take over the leadership role from both T's salmon course and Michelle's New York strip course, earning him the ire and annoyance from his teammates and Ramsay, while Nick and Meghan had no problems on salmon and strip except for Randy taking the salmon out of the oven too early. After dinner service, Ramsay deemed the blue team winners, but only by a small margin and told the red team to come up with two nominees for elimination.

Elimination: The red team nominated Josh and Michelle for their ineffective leadership. However, Ramsay told both of them to get back in line, and eliminated Randy due to his lack of experience and not bouncing back after his subpar leadership on his course, despite him being on the winning team. However, Ramsay did praise and commend Randy's performance up to that point and for being one of the fastest learners in Hell's Kitchen history.

Randy's comment: "I really felt like my team hung me out to dry. But my head is held up high walking out of here. I just wish I had more experience in the kitchen, because if I could combine that with my leadership abilities, there is nobody in here that would've stood a chance."

Team challenge: The chefs were given 35 minutes to go through a big pile of keys to find ones that would open lockers containing various cuts of steak, then cook the steak they unlocked. They presented their dishes to Ramsay in a "King of the Hill" challenge. T initially got to sit on the throne with her ribcap, topping Milly's New York strip and Josh's porterhouse. Meghan managed to dethrone T with her own porterhouse, then Alison's ribeye and Nick's New York strip also missed the mark. Last up was Michelle, who beat Meghan and won the challenge for the red team, even though she spent the first 10 minutes trying to open a locker and ended up with the cheapest cut of steak (flank steak).

Reward/punishment: The red team headed to Catalina Island, where they went on a submarine ride and had a four-course dinner at the Catalina Country Club. Ramsay also rewarded them a key, which revealed four Vitamix blenders inside a treasure chest. The blue team broke down a 250-pound side of beef for the next service.

Service: This was a special steak night, and it was the final service performed as two teams, with black jackets on the line. Jake Steinfeld and Jerry Hairston Jr. were in attendance. Michelle's winning challenge dish was included on the menu. Both teams breezed through appetizers, save for Michelle serving watery capellini. On entrees, Nick served scorched, dried salmon, and Meghan made a rare mistake for her with a raw New York strip, but the blue team completed their final orders with no further problems. Ramsay rewarded Meghan, Milly, and Nick with a "dessert" of their new black jackets. For the red team, Alison undercooked filet and salmon due to her inexperience on the fish station, and Josh fell behind the team on garnish while arguing with T, resulting in Ramsay sending out one table's order half finished. After Alison overcooked the salmon refire, Ramsay removed her from the fish station for T, which sped their service back up again. He also summoned Meghan, Milly, and Nick to help the red team finish up their service. The final seven chefs were tasked collectively to come up with two people for elimination.

Elimination: The red team nominated Alison and Josh. After giving Michelle and T black jackets, Ramsay then called Josh and Alison forward, ultimately eliminating Alison for her failures on the fish station, although acknowledging her flashes of brilliance, before giving Josh the final black jacket.

Alison's comment: "It beats me up knowing that the one night of the jackets is when I royally screw myself. But I'm still young, so there's hope. The universe is definitely my oyster at this point. I am a better chef than when I walked in these doors, and if you can deal with Chef Ramsay, I feel like you can deal with anything else in the world."

Challenge: The chefs participated in the "Taste it, now make it" challenge. Nick and Michelle won by correctly identifying the protein as sea bass and the seasoning of the broth as soy sauce. Josh and Meghan misidentified the sea bass as halibut, and Milly and T misidentified the broth as sake.

Reward/punishment: Nick and Michelle were rewarded with a trip in an amphibious car to the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, where they had lunch, while the others had to separate recyclables from the trash. Ramsay also volunteered them to cook 150 lb (68 kg) of mashed potatoes from scratch to donate to the organization Midnight Mission (this especially hit Milly hard, because he had been homeless three times before in his life). During the punishment, Josh continued to annoy his teammates due to his minimal contribution, both during recycling and cooking.

Service: Tatum O'Neal and her son, Sean McEnroe, are tonight's guests for the chef's table. Michelle served two Caesar salads on plates rather than in bowls. Meghan did well with the risottos, but Nick derailed her progress by adding cold lobster tails to them. On the chef's table, Michelle fell behind on her tuna and even then nearly undercooked it. On entrees, Josh allowed a fire to erupt on his station, and fell behind T when she quickly walked up the salmon, as he had not finished the lamb. He lied that T had not told him she was getting ready to walk her salmon when she actually had. Josh made things worse by undercooking chicken for the chef's table. When O'Neal decided that her Wellington was too raw, she asked for a halibut instead, which T cooked for her with no problems. Ultimately, service was completed with a perfectly cooked lamb from Josh, who had to recover from a series of mistakes and stumbles.

Elimination: Ramsay praised the final six for their strong service as one team, but he still asked them to go upstairs and nominate two for elimination, which turned out to be Josh and Michelle. After much thought, Ramsay eliminated Josh due to his long downward spiral, much to everyone else's relief and delight, but praised him for his passion as well for bouncing back on after a string of bad services.

Josh's comment: "I came here believing in myself, and I was so excited just to have this opportunity. I have a lot of heart, a lot of passion. But it takes being torn apart to get better. Everything that I've been through has made me stronger, and I didn't think that was possible. I'm not disappointed in myself at all. I laid it all on the line. I gave 100% every day. Chef Ramsay, I just want to thank you for believing in me. For Chef Ramsay to allow me to leave on a high note, it's a magical feeling. This is just the beginning for me. I don't know what the future holds. I don't, but I know it's bright."

Challenge: The chefs had 45 minutes to cook small dishes for the guests at a private concert, which featured a performance by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music orchestra. The chefs then presented their dishes to the guests, each of whom ranked the chef's dishes from best to worst. Milly's dish won in a blowout decision, with 55% of the vote. Meghan was the next closest with 18%.

Reward/punishment: Milly went on a helicopter tour of Los Angeles and chose T (whose dish received the fewest votes at 3%) to join him. The others separated peppercorns and used a mortar and pestle to ground them. They also set up the stations for the next service. When Milly and T returned to help finish prepping the kitchen, Michelle left the kitchen to use the bathroom, and her beurre monte boiled over and started a small fire.

Service: Regular sous-chefs Andi and James were given the night off, and attended the service as guests. Each of the chefs took a turn acting as Ramsay's sous-chef. Robert Davi, Charo and Winter Ave Zoli were also in attendance for this service. Milly earned praise for detecting scallops that were not seared on one side, but then took over the fish station and made the same mistake, and had troubles with the scallops for the rest of the service. He blamed this on Michelle, who had been working at the fish station, not explaining the station to him. Michelle annoyed the others during her turn as sous chef by constantly shouting "pick it up", though received praise from Ramsay. T called out an order to Nick on the meat station, which he acknowledged. However, when they switched places later, T discovered that Nick had not started the order, which created a lengthy delay. Nick, feeling the brunt of all of his mistakes, faltered on running the pass, but ultimately managed to rally and get the final orders out to the guests. Only Meghan and T had flawless performances both in the kitchen and as sous chefs.

Elimination: The chefs quickly agreed to nominate Nick, but were divided on the second nominee. Milly had a rough service, but T and Meghan did not want to put him up, leaving Michelle to be nominated. Ramsay overruled Michelle's nomination, instead nominating Milly for making far more mistakes at his own station, despite being a superior sous chef. However, Nick was eliminated for deteriorating service performances, but Ramsay praised his overall strong performance in the competition.

Nick's comment: "From day one, I definitely was an underdog. I was so nervous. But you have to stick up for yourself, because if you don't, people are gonna walk all over you. I knew I would make mistakes, because I know I'm not perfect. But you have to grow, and you have to be willing to learn and bounce back. The rewards were amazing. It was always something new and definitely exciting. Stress, pressure, it's not so nerve-racking once you gain confidence. It was really cool to kind of just be myself and get as far as I did. I don't think the worst chef left tonight. I think that I was out-performed tonight."

Challenge: Ramsay brought the final four to Bristol Farms, where each chef was given $25 and 10 minutes to find the ingredients to create a good vegetarian dish. Back at Hell's Kitchen, they were each given 30 minutes to use the ingredients they bought to the make their dish for Ramsay. Although all of the chefs struggled (except Michelle, who used to be a vegetarian), Meghan won the challenge with her zucchini angel hair pasta dish - her first challenge win after nine consecutive losses.

Reward/punishment: Meghan went parasailing in Newport Beach and had a three-course dinner at Studio Restaurant at the Montage Laguna Beach Resort. She chose T to join her. Milly and Michelle had to clean Hell's Kitchen's exterior, as well as polish the wood in the grand hall by hand. In addition, Ramsay had them vacuum, shampoo, and clean the red carpet.

Service: Just prior to dinner service, the chefs' families were invited to see them - Michelle's boyfriend and sister, Meghan's mother, T's girlfriend and daughter, and Milly's girlfriend and son, who Milly had based his challenge dish around. In attendance were Il Volo, Tamara Taylor and Taylor Hicks. Like the previous week, all the chefs had an opportunity to run the pass, with Sous Chef Andi filling in for the chef running as the leader. However, she would deliberately make errors in order to expose the chefs' weaknesses. Milly ran first, and despite failing to spot crab in a risotto instead of lobster, he received praise for his leadership, and pointed out mistakes the other chefs had made. However, he struggled again on his own station, serving a risotto with no cheese and another one that was soupy. Meghan ran next. She was considered a better, if more harsh leader, than Milly, though she also failed to spot sea bass being used instead of halibut. Michelle struggled as leader; despite constantly ordering her team, they paid little attention to her and Ramsay kept reminding her to be more authoritative. Michelle initially spotted Andi sending up broccoli instead of cauliflower, though later changed her mind upon tasting it, which led Ramsay to again help her. During Michelle's time as chef, T was reprimanded for taking too long on a wellington. T was last to perform as head chef. She led strongly and was the only one to spot her mistake, catching a lamb wellington instead of beef. Ramsay commended the chefs for doing so well and told them all to think about who should be in the final two with them. Meghan voted for Michelle and had votes from T and Michelle, while Milly voted for T.

Elimination: After asking each chef who they believed did not deserve to progress, Ramsay first eliminated Milly but gave him praise. On his emotional exit, a teary-eyed Milly wished good luck to the other chefs. His exit also marked the first time that there was an all-female final three. Ramsay named Meghan, who had been "rock solid", as the first finalist, before choosing T to compete against Meghan in the final. Michelle was praised, as the youngest chef in the competition, for beating out people with much more experience than her. After elimination, Ramsay praised the two finalists. He introduced a mystery figure behind a door, before the episode ended in a cliffhanger.

Milly's comment: "Damn, I almost had it in my hands. It was just that close. I was the only one here that didn't graduate from a culinary institute. I probably was the only one here that didn't graduate from high school. I'm very proud of myself. I proved a lot of things to myself that I didn't know. I do this, not for the fame, not for glitz, not for the glamour, just to cook good food for people. I'm just trying to make the world a better place. For Chef Ramsay to just only see my passion, I love him for that, because at the end of the day, Chef Ramsay didn't judge me. He didn't care where I came from, none of that. All he cared about was my food."

Pre-challenge: Ramsay introduced Season 10 winner Christina Wilson. The finalists flew out to Las Vegas, where they spent the night at Paris Las Vegas and had lunch with Christina at Gordon Ramsay Steak. Upon their return to Los Angeles, Ramsay invited Meghan and T to his home, where they met his wife Tana and daughter Tilly; the finalists were then brought out to Ramsay's backyard, where they were given their final challenge.

Challenge: Meghan and T were given one hour to create five dishes (one cold appetizer, one hot appetizer, one fish entree, one chicken entree and one beef entree), which would then be judged by an array of top chefs who would decide the winner of the challenge. T won the challenge 42-41.

Reward: T got the first pick of the last eight chefs eliminated. T picked Milly followed by Nick, Adam, and Christine. Meanwhile, Meghan picked Michelle, Alison, Josh, and was left with Randy. This was the first time since Season 8 where every chef who was scheduled to return for the final dinner service was able to do so.

Service: The chef's tables for the final service included Tiffani Thiessen in T's kitchen and Lisa Loeb in Meghan's. In addition, Robert Englund and the finalists' families were also in attendance. Both teams got through the appetizer stage smoothly, despite minor consistency issues with Michelle and Christine. However T's team started slowing down on entrees as Adam repeatedly undercooked ribcap, which forced T to switch him with Nick on garnish. However T was forced to put Nick back on garnish again when Adam was not communicating, and delegated Christine to support Adam on garnish after she sent up dry truffle mac. Meghan's team was held back by Randy constantly overcooking chicken. After Meghan caught him putting sliced chicken back in the oven, she put him on desserts and had Michelle take over. Despite these setbacks, both teams finished their service. This was the first final since Season 10 in which nobody was thrown out of service.

Winner: Ramsay congratulated both finalists on their strong services, and told them that he would have a hard time determining a winner. After analyzing the service and overall performance, he called both of them into his office, where he praised them for their performance up to that point. Afterwards, he asked them to go to their respective doors where Meghan's door opened making her the fourteenth winner of Hell's Kitchen; T took her defeat graciously.

T's comment: "To go up against Meghan, it was an honor. I'm thankful for the opportunity, I'm thankful for the experience. For this, I'm truly a better person. I'm thankful. You know, maybe the time that you want it, maybe you're not ready for it. I don't consider it like I lost, I consider it like my opportunity hasn't opened yet. Eventually, it will come, just not today."

Meghan's comment: "Oh, my God! Coming down those steps and seeing everybody so excited and so happy for me, that was the best. That was the absolute fucking best. At the end of it, I get to my mother. Just going through the ups and downs with her in my whole life, seeing her at the end of the tunnel was just... Yeah."