Hell's Kitchen

Gordon Ramsay is a renowned chef. He is known for his excellent cooking skills. He is a celebrity chef that hosts Hell’s Kitchen. It is a cooking competition – aspiring chefs compete in the kitchen to eventually become the head chef at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants around the world.

Each season there are 12 – 20 aspiring chefs that compete in Hell’s Kitchen. The actual kitchen is located in Los Angeles, in a modified warehouse. The place has dual kitchen facilities for the competing teams and a dormitory for the competing chefs to stay during the time of the competition.

At the start of each season Gordon Ramsay splits the competitors into two teams based on gender – the women on the red team, and the men on the blue team. Each competing chef is given a chef’s jacket with their team color and their name on it. The competitors are split into two teams until the overall number is reduced to 5 or 6 chefs. When that happens, they receive “black jackets”. They all work together in the kitchen during services; however, they are all evaluated individually throughout the process.

At the start of each season the starting challenge is that each competitor should create a “signature dish”. This allows the chefs to show Ramsay their cooking skills.

Throughout the competition there are cooking challenges that allow the chefs to show off their cooking ability, creativity, and talent – when it comes to plating their dishes.

There are challenges that are “taste it, make it”. The chefs are required to identify the ingredients of a dish made by Gordon Ramsay and replicate it.

During the challenges, when the competitors are split into two teams, they are rewarded points based on whatever the challenge is. Whichever team is gains the most points at the end of the challenge wins. Gordon Ramsay himself often distributes the points. Often throughout the challenges guest judges that also offer their opinions and give out points to the competitors accompany him.

The winning team is rewarded with a day away from Hell’s Kitchen. The rewards could vary from a day in the sun to spending a night in Las Vegas, to shopping sprees, and more. There are several challenge wins where Gordon Ramsay accompanies the chefs and they are able to sit with him under more relaxed circumstances.

The losing team is “rewarded” with a brutal punishment. The punishment is generally related to Hell’s Kitchen. It could be prepping both kitchens, cleaning the dorms, restocking, preparing the dining room, and even brutal food preparations.

Each episode generally consists of a dinner service. During each service the chefs on each team are assigned to certain stations. The stations include meat, fish, garnish, hot appetizers, cold appetizers, and so on. This way the chefs are a part of a kitchen line and have to learn how to prepare food in coordination with their other teammates. They also have to try to prepare food that meet Ramsay’s standards for quality and presentation.

At the start of the show the chefs are given menus and recipe books for them to study and memorize. These include the recipes for the plates that they will be creating during dinner service. They are then given time before each dinner service to prepare their kitchens / stations and coordinate with the rest of the team.

Gordon Ramsay insists that all of the orders on a table are sent out together, so chefs really have to coordinate to be able to send out different types of dishes at the same time.

Throughout the season Gordon Ramsay is assisted by two sous-chefs. They monitor each kitchen alongside him.

At the end of each dinner service Gordon Ramsay picks a “losing team”. That team then has to select two nominations for elimination. Unlike other game shows or competitions, Hell’s Kitchen does not include any audience participation during the elimination of chefs.

This process is then repeated until there are two chefs left. The two chefs then have a final service where they create their own menus, select their team members – from the past contestants – and compete to win Hell’s Kitchen.

The winners receive the opportunity to work as either the head chef or executive chef at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants. They also win a cash prize of $250,000.