Hell's Kitchen (American TV series)

This article is about the American television show. For the New York City neighborhood, see Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan.

Hell's Kitchen
Title Card for Hell's Kitchen
Created by	Gordon Ramsay
Directed by	Tony Croll (season 1) Brad Kreisberg (seasons 2-5) Sharon Trojan Hollinger (season 6-present)
Starring	See below
Opening theme	"Fire" by the Ohio Players
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	9
No. of episodes	122
Production
Producers	ITV Studios Granada America A. Smith & Co. Productions
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	May 30, 2005 (2005-05-30) – present
Related
Hell's Kitchen (UK)

Hell's Kitchen is an American reality television cooking competition (based on a series of the same name, broadcast in the UK) broadcast on Fox. It is hosted by British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

Fox announced that the 10th season is scheduled to begin May 29, 2012, along with his other show MasterChef that will air the same day. On April 12, 2012 Fox renewed the show for an additional two seasons.

Format

The format of the program is similar to the United Kingdom version, with a red team and a blue team competing in various cooking challenges for most of the season; once the number of remaining contestants is reduced to five (or six in seasons 4-8), the two teams combine to become a single black team and compete individually.

After the players are split into teams, the series begins with each chef preparing a signature dish and presenting it to Gordon Ramsay to taste. After that, each chef is presented with a set of utensils (theirs to keep), a menu and/or book to study (also theirs to keep), and a chef's jacket of their team color. In later seasons, the signature dish has now been presented as the first team challenge.

The benefits for contestants are not just monetary but include culinary training, and these benefits include gaining valuable experience in prepping a first-class kitchen, learning teamwork skills, and being instructed in a wide range of culinary skills. Ramsay offers training on many subjects including shucking scallops, choosing cuts of meat, cutting a chicken into eight evenly sized parts, knowing how to prepare proteins with ingredients, filleting a whole fish, making crepes and lobster risotto, and prepping monkfish before cooking.

Each remaining episode begins with a team or individual challenge; the winning chef or team may get a reward, while the losing team or players are required to perform some form of manual labor, usually consisting of kitchen duty in preparation for the dinner service but may also be cleaning the dormitories or decorating the restaurant for a particular event. It may also take the form of "punishment fitting the crime," meaning preparing the same foodstuffs that were used in the challenge for a dinner service. This punishment sometimes includes a lunch consisting of less palatable parts of those foodstuffs. Often the losing team or chef(s) will have to prepare a meal for the winning team or chef(s) to enjoy during their reward.

During dinner service, teams are responsible for preparing food to Gordon Ramsay's very demanding taste and appearance requirements as well as within a limited time frame. Ramsay does not prepare any of the foods, and only supervises the outcome, dispatching the correct preparations to the dining hall. He may throw away an entire plate of food due to one element being off, requiring the team to re-prepare the dish or the entire table if necessary, and usually sends a barrage of insults and obscenities to the responsible player or team. If Ramsay sees failure in a specific area in the kitchen, he may force one player to take over for another. In more recent seasons, if he sees complete failure in one or more chefs, he will kick the responsible individuals out of the kitchen for the remainder of the service, and have himself and his sous-chefs come in to finish the service. If the entire kitchen is in a debacle, Ramsay may end the dinner service prematurely, often using his catchphrase "Shut it down!" or "Switch it off!"

After the dinner service, Ramsay will select the winning team who may get an additional reward. In earlier seasons Ramsay would name the best member of the losing team as the "Best of the Worst" and have them pick two teammates for elimination, though in more recent years the Best of the Worst is generally not used unless one of the losing team turns in an exceptionally good performance, and nominations are decided on via a consensus of all the losing team members. Alternatively, if the service is exceptionally bad (or good), Ramsay may declare no team the winner (or name the teams as joint winners), requiring both teams to nominate someone for elimination. Sometimes Ramsay overrules the nominations and chooses someone else entirely, and in rare cases of an exceptionally good service, will not eliminate any of the contestants. When the game is down to a single team but still more than three people, the winning player (or "Best of the Best") will sometimes be asked to select which two are to be nominated. Each nominated player has a chance to plead their case to Ramsay, but he makes the final decision, at which point the eliminated player hands over their chef's jacket, which he forcefully hangs up on a hook until the hook pokes a hole in the jacket and also sends an above photo of the player up in flames to symbolize their elimination. If one of the players turns in an exceptionally bad performance, then Ramsay may eliminate them while the service is still in progress. An additional elimination may also occur at the end of the episode as normal; usually this occurs if the already-eliminated chef's team was still able to win despite losing a member. Often players will voluntarily exit the competition either due to medical conditions or their own free will. Depending on how well they've done in the competition overall, Ramsay may or may not let the eliminated chef(s) keep their jacket(s) upon exiting.

When the competition is down to the final two players, Ramsay splits the Hell's Kitchen dining area into two sections, and each of the two final contestants runs their own restaurant; each contestant is allowed to choose the menu for his or her restaurant. In earlier seasons, they are allowed to design a decoration and style into these dining areas. Six previously eliminated contestants return as aides to help the two finalists to prepare the meals. Ramsay will use his observations of how the finalists work in the kitchens and with their teams; not just during the final service, but throughout the whole competition as well, and feedback from the patrons of each restaurant, to select the ultimate winner of the show. In most recent seasons, eight previously eliminated contestants return to work with two finalists in the kitchens. The two finalists meet in his office (which includes the hung jackets of all eliminated players, their burnt photos, and the photos of the two finalists), and each stands behind one of two doors, one of which is locked and the other of which is unlocked. On the count of three, they try to open their doors, and the chef whose door opens is declared the winner. According to one view, the number of ties during the show at this stage of the contest was larger than would have been expected by random chance, which suggests that there have been efforts, possibly by Ramsay or the producers, to set up the playing field in such a way to cause these outcomes to maximize the dramatic effect.

Hell's Kitchen is somewhat rare among elimination-style reality shows in that all of the responsibilities of judging and eliminating fall to a single person, Ramsay, instead of a full panel of judges, or a majority vote by the contestants. Additionally, Ramsay has the power to override the basic format of the competition, such as ignoring the losing team's nominations for elimination, eliminating contestants from a winning team, eliminating contestants in the middle of dinner service, or changing around team members.

Analyst Arthur Perkins credits the show's success with four factors:

1. Numerous cameras (up to 72) allow tight editing and capturing every action
2. A confessional booth reveals insights into competitors' characters
3. Ramsay's "enfant terrible" personality, impeccable credentials, and overall showmanship
4. Casting relatively unknown chefs

Perkins compared Ramsay's unusual showmanship to that of P. T. Barnum of the famed Ringling Brothers circus:

Ramsay's personality is so unusual that many watch him rant, rave and throw things. I consider him the "enfant terrible" of reality television. ... He has a fiery temper ... He practices ritual humiliation, verbal abuse and even occasionally physical abuse.

— Arthur Perkins, in Chef Wars: Hell's Kitchen, 2011

Cast

The show is hosted by Gordon Ramsay and narrated by Jason Thompson. Jean-Philippe Susilovic, a Belgian maître d' comes from Petrus, one of Ramsay's London restaurants and has appeared in the first seven seasons. Susilovic was also the maître d' for the first series of the original British version. James Lukanik replaced Susilovic since the eighth season.

Each team also has the services of one of two sous-chefs. Scott Leibfried has appeared in all seasons, the other sous-chef is Andrea "Andi" Van Willigan (from season 7 onwards). Previous sous-chefs are Mary Ann Salcedo, Gloria Felix and season 2 winner, Heather West.

Chefs

• Gordon Ramsay
• Scott Leibfried
• MaryAnn Salcedo (2005–2007)
• Gloria Felix (2008–2009)
• Heather West (2009)
• Andi Van Willigan (2010–present)

Maître d's

• Jean-Philippe Susilovic (2005–2010)
• James Lukanik (2010–present)

Bold print indicates that the judge/presenter is currently judging/presenting this current season.

Production

Broadcasting

The theme song is "Fire" by the Ohio Players. When the U.S. is broadcast in the UK, Italy, Portugal and some countries (shown on the table below), it features only the instrumental version of this song.

Country	Channel	Current Season	Notes
Middle East	MBC 4	Season 5	bleep censored
Southeast Asia	STAR World	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on October 17, 2011, but aired only three times a week. First new season to be aired outside of the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK.
	Fox	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on February 27, 2012 and concluded on April 2, 2012, airs three times a week.
Australia	GEM Lifestyle Channel	Season 9	Previously broadcast on Channel Nine, GO! and Lifestyle Food Network
Belgium	VT4	Season 4 (ended)	Broadcast as Hell's Kitchen USA and left uncensored. Also shown on AB3 (Season 3)
Brazil	TLC (Travel & Living Channel)	Season 6 (ended)
Bulgaria	Nova Television	Unknown	Previously broadcast on Nova+
Canada	CityTV Omni Television Canal Évasion	Current	Bleep censored; simsubbed with Fox in most areas. Reruns available on Food Network Canada which may be run uncensored. Also translated in French for Canal Évasion in Quebec.
People's Republic of China	ICS	Season 9
Czech Republic	TV Barrandov	Season 4	Translated as Pekelná Kuchyně. Dubbed, profanity censored. After the seveth season was broadcasted the fourth started over again.
Estonia	Kanal 12	Season 3	With uncensored Estonian subtitles.
Finland	MTV3	Season 6	The title is translated as Kauhukeittiö which means "The Kitchen of Horrors". Profanity is left uncensored.
France	TMC	Season 4 (ended)	Season 4 has debuted in France on June 26, 2011 and has ended on October 2, 2011.
Germany	VIVA	Season 5
Greece	Makedonia TV	Season 3
Hungary	Viasat3	Season 9	Season 7 and 8 ran simultaneously on Viasat 3. Airing of Season 9 begun on February 9, 2012.
Iceland	Stöð 2	Season 5
India	TLC	Season 6
Ireland	TV3	Season 6 (ended)
Israel	yes Next HD	Season 8	Previously broadcast on yesStars Drama
Italy	Sky Uno	Season 9	Also available on Cielo where the title is translated as Hell's Kitchen-Il diavolo in cucina. SKY Uno airs 2 episodes a night.
Japan	Fox Life	Season 1, 2	Season 1 started on November 8, 2009 and Season 2 started on May 7, 2010.
Lithuania	BTV	Season 9
Malaysia	Star World	Season 9	Bleeped and pixelated to mask profanity. Astro mutes all profanity. The ninth season premiered on October 17, 2011, but aired only three times a week. Season 9 is the first new season to be aired outside of the USA, Canada and the UK.
	Fox	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on February 27, 2012 and concluded on April 2, 2012, airs three times a week.
Mexico Colombia Argentina Peru	TLC (Latin America)	Season 6 (ended)	Prevous broadcast on Liv (Season 5) and Casa Club TV (Season 1-4).
Netherlands	Net 5	Season 8
New Zealand	TV2	Season 7	All profanity censored. Late night re-screenings of Hell's Kitchen on TV2 are mostly uncensored.
Norway	TV3	Season 7
Philippines	2nd Avenue	Season 4	Mutes all profanity.
	Star World	Season 9	Same with Asia feed with the premiere date shown above, but only five times a week.
	Fox	Season 8	Broadcasts three times a week.
Poland	TVN Style	Season 8	Previously carried by Polsat and kuchnia.tv
Portugal	SIC Radical	Season 8 (ended)	Season 4 subtitled and onward uncensored
Russia	Muz-TV	Season 1-4, 8, 9
Singapore	Star World	Season 9	Subtitled in Chinese and censored
	Fox	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on February 27, 2012 and concluded on April 2, 2012, airs three times a week.
Slovenia	Kanal A	Unknown	Reruns on TV Pika
Sweden	TV3	Season 7	bleep censored when shown during the daytime, night time airings not censored.
Taiwan	Star World	Season 9
	Fox	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on February 27, 2012 and concluded on April 2, 2012, airs three times a week.
Thailand	Star World	Season 9	Subtitled in Thai and censored
	Fox	Season 9 (ended)	Premiered on February 27, 2012 and concluded on April 2, 2012, airs three times a week.
Turkey	FX	Season 8
Ukraine	CITI	Season 7 (ended)	Uncensored
United Kingdom	ITV2	Current	Broadcast as Hell's Kitchen USA (Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen USA from Season 8). Censored during watershed hours.
United States	Fox Network	Current	bleep censored and pixelated to mask profanity

In Turkey, Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia, Hungary, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Korea, Ireland, Slovenia, Israel, Latin America (Season 1-5), Brazil, Italy and Japan, all the profane language is transmitted uncensored; however, in Hungary, Italy and Latin America (Season 6-), the show is dubbed with local voices, so the original voices can't be heard clearly.

Setting

For the show's first two seasons, the Hell's Kitchen restaurant set itself was housed in the former studios of Los Angeles television station KCOP at 915 North La Brea Avenue, in Hollywood, which at one time hosted production of game shows Tic Tac Dough and The Joker's Wild. KCOP was acquired by News Corporation in 2001 and its studios were integrated with those of Fox affiliate KTTV in 2003, leaving the La Brea facility vacant. Originally the studio was put up for sale, but in the end they were retooled for the production of Hell's Kitchen. The dining room area was the location of the former KCOP news studios, and living quarters for the contestants were built on behind the restaurant. Before season three, the Hell's Kitchen facility was moved to 3322 La Cienega Place in Los Angeles. Since the fourth season, Hell's Kitchen's venue was located at 8660 Hayden Place in Culver City. According to Arthur Perkins, the soundstage is only open for audience members when filming is taking place.

Accusations of Staging

The United States version of Hell's Kitchen has drawn numerous on-line and editorial accusations of staging and dramatic license, mostly due to editing techniques of the producers which splice together several hours of footage from a dinner service, in order to make certain contestants appear as poor performers, later justifying their elimination. This was most obvious when one episode featured clips showing an already eliminated contestant in the background, still cooking.

The diners on Hell's Kitchen are a mixture of Los Angeles residents; however, several of the "angry customer" scenes, featuring walk-outs and upset patrons over food quality, have drawn attention as faked since the camera always seems to be "at the right place, at the right time"; one of the most widely reported incidents pertained to an episode where one of the contestants, as Assistant Maître d, advised customers not to order certain food, who were then promptly questioned by the real Maître d, who then promptly informed Chef Ramsay (creating a dramatic scene).

Perhaps the most controversial accusation of staging on Hell's Kitchen relates to an incident with contestant Joseph Tinnelly, who, during one elimination round, angrily confronted Chef Ramsay, challenging him to fight, and was then escorted off the set by a pair of burly assistant producers. The incident drew immediate fire from critics as a faked scene conducted to cause action and tension on the show in order to spark viewer interest.

Seasons

Season	Original run	Winner	Runner-up	Other contestants in order of elimination	Reason for winning	Contestants	Winner's prize
1	May 30 – August 1, 2005	Michael Wray	Ralph Pagano	Carolann Valentino, Jeff Dewberry, Jeff LaPoff (left), Wendy Liu, Mary Ellen Daniels, Chris North, Andrew Bonito, Jimmy Casey, Elsie Ramos, Jessica Cabo	High standards	12	Tatou in Los Angeles
2	June 12 – August 14, 2006	Heather West	Virginia Dalbeck	Polly Holladay, Larry Sik (left), Gabe Cunningham, Giacomo Alfieri, Tom Pauley, Rachel Brown, Maribel Miller, Garrett Telle, Sara Horowitz, Keith Greene	Determination		Terra Rossa at Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino in Las Vegas
3	June 4 – August 13, 2007	Rahman “Rock” Harper	Bonnie Muirhead	Tiffany Nagel, Eddie Langley, Aaron Song (left), Joanna Dunn, Vinnie Fama, Melissa Firpo, Brad Miller, Josh Wahler, Julia Williams, Jen Yemola	Leadership		Terra Verde at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson
4	April 1 – July 8, 2008	Christina Machamer	Louis "Petrozza" Petrozza	Dominic DiFrancesco, Sharon Stewart, Jason Underwood, Craig Schneider, Vanessa Gunnell (left), Shayna Raichilson-Zadok, Ben Caylor, Rosann Fama, Louross Edralin, Matt Sigel, Bobby Anderson, Jen Gavin, Corey Earling	Potential	15	London West Hollywood in Los Angeles
5	January 29 – May 14, 2009	Danny Veltri	Paula DaSilva	Wil Kocol, Ji-Hyun Cha (left), Charlie McKay, Seth Levine, Colleen Cleek, Coi Burruss, J Maxwell, Lacey D'Angelo, LA Limtiaco, Carol Scott, Giovanni Filipponi, Robert Hesse (left,felt chest pains, pericarditis), Ben Walanka, Andrea Heinly	Maturity	16	Fornelletto at the Borgata in Atlantic City
6	July 21 – October 13, 2009	Dave Levey	Kevin Cottle	Louie Cordio, Melinda Meaney, Joseph Tinnelly (left), Tony D'Alessandro, Lovely Jackson, Tek Moore, Jim McGloin, Robert Hesse, Amanda Davenport, Andy Husbands, Sabrina Gresset, Van Hurd, Suzanne Schlicht, Tennille Middleton, Ariel Contreras-Fox	Perseverance	17	Araxi Restaurant and Bar in Whistler
7	June 1 – August 10, 2010	Holli Ugalde	Jason "Jay" Santos	Stacey Slichta, Andrew Forester (left), Mikey Termini, Jamie Bisoulis, Maria Torrisi, Scott Hawley, Salvatore Coppola, Siobhan Allgood, Fran Klier, Nilka Hendricks, Ed Battaglia, Jason Ellis, Autumn Lewis, Benjamin Knack	Confidence	16	Savoy Grill at Savoy Hotel in London
8	September 22 – December 15, 2010	Nona Sivley	Russell Kook II	Antonia Boregman (left), Lisa LaFranca, Lewis Curtis, Raj Brandston, Louis Repucci, Emily Kutchins, Melissa Doney, Boris Poleschuk, Rob McCue, Vinny Accardi Jr., Sabrina Brimhall, Gail Novenario, Trev McGrath, Jillian Flathers	Palate		LA Market at JW Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles
9	July 18 – September 19, 2011	Paul Niedermann	Will Lustberg	Jason Zepaltas (left), Steven Paluba, Brendan Heavey, Amanda Colello, Chino Chang, Gina Melcher, Monterray Keys, Krupa Patel, Jonathon Plumley, Jamie Gregorich, Carrie Keep, Natalie Blake, Elizabeth Bianchi, Jennifer Normant, Tommy Stevens, Elise Wims	Enthusiasm	18	BLT Steak in New York City
10	May 29, 2012 – TBA

Awards and nominations

Hell's Kitchen has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Music or Nonfiction Programming category in 2007, 2008, and 2009. It has also been nominated for two Art Directors Guild Awards in the Television — Awards Show, Variety, Music or Non-Fiction Program category in 2007 and 2008, winning one in 2008. It has also been nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer Series.

In 2009, Gordon Ramsay won an Astra Award for Favourite International Personality or Actor.

In the 2011, People's Choice Awards Hell's Kitchen was nominated for Favorite Reality Show and Gordon Ramsay was nominated for Favorite TV Chef

Other media

DVD releases

Visual Entertainment has released the first six seasons of Hell's Kitchen in Region 1. Season 7 will be released on June 5, 2012.

In Region 4, Shock Entertainment has released seasons 1-8 on DVD in Australia.

DVD name	Ep #	Release dates
		Region 1 (CAN)	Region 1 (US)	Region 4
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 1: Raw and Uncut	10	April 8, 2008		December 1, 2008
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 2: Raw and Uncut	10	October 27, 2009	May 11, 2010	February 2, 2009
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 3: Raw and Uncut	11	August 10, 2010	September 21, 2010	February 2, 2009
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 4: Raw and Uncut	15	November 16, 2010	November 9, 2010	April 1, 2009
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 5: Raw and Uncut	15	August 30, 2011		November 27, 2009
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 6: Raw and Uncut	15	November 1, 2011	April 10, 2012	March 9, 2011
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 7: Raw and Uncut	15	June 5, 2012		May 11, 2011
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 8: Raw and Uncut	15	TBA	TBA	May 11, 2011
Hell's Kitchen USA - Season 9	16	TBA	TBA	TBA

Hell's Kitchen: The Game

Hells Kitchen: The Game
Developer(s)	Ludia
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS, Windows, iPhone OS
Release	September 11, 2008
Genre(s)	Sim

On September 11, 2008, Ubisoft released Hell's Kitchen: The Game for the Nintendo DS, Windows, and iOS which features the likeness of Ramsay, and the many important tasks shown in the U.S. version of the show.

Hells Kitchen on Facebook
Developer(s)	Ludia / Social2u
Platform(s)	Facebook
Release	April 2, 2009
Genre(s)	Sim

On April 2, 2009, Ludia and Social2u released the official Facebook version of the Hell's Kitchen game.

References

• Perkins, Jr., Arthur E. (2011). Chef Wars: Hell's Kitchen. USA: Charleston. p. 282. ISBN 9781456450236.

External links

• Official website
• Hell's Kitchen at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com