Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hell's Kitchen | |
|---|---|
 Title Card for Hell's Kitchen |
|
| Format | Reality |
| Created by | Gordon Ramsay |
| Starring | Gordon Ramsay, Scott Leibfried, Mary Ann Salcedo (seasons 1-3), Gloria Felix (season 4), Jean-Philippe Susilovic |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 37 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Granada America |
| Running time | Approx. 42 minutes (60 minutes with commercials) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | FOX |
| Original run | May 30, 2005 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Hell's Kitchen (UK) |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Hell's Kitchen is an American reality-television cooking competition. It is a remake of the original series of the same name, broadcast in the UK. The series focuses more on the reality television aspect of the show and it is not uncommon to not even know what the players are cooking. For this reason, reality television show fans tend to enjoy the program while cooking show fans tend to not take it seriously at all.
The show debuted its first season in May 2005. The second and third seasons both debuted in June of 2006 and 2007 respectively. The fourth season debuted in April 2008.
Contents |
[edit] Format
The format of the program is similar to the UK version, with a red team and a blue team competing in various cooking challenges for most of the season; once the number of remaining players are small enough, they become a single black team and compete individually.
Each episode includes a team or individual challenge; the winning chef or player may get a reward, while the losing team or players are required to perform some kitchen duty in preparation for the dinner service. During dinner service, teams are responsible for preparing food to Ramsay's very demanding taste and appearance requirements as well as within a limited time frame. Ramsay may throw away a complete dish due to one element being off, requiring the team to re-prepare this dish. If Ramsay sees failure in the kitchen, he may force one player to take over for another. If the entire kitchen is in a debacle, Ramsay may shut down the dinner service prematurely, oftentimes using his catchphrase "Shut it down!". After the dinner service, Ramsay will select the winning team who may get an additional reward, and then will select the best player on the losing team to make a decision about which two fellow teammates to nominate for elimination. Alternatively, if the service is so bad, Ramsay may declare no team the winner, or no specific player on the losing team as the best, requiring the team(s) to nominate someone for elimination. When the game is down to a single team but still more than three people, the winning player will select the two to be nominated. Each nominated player has a chance to plead their case to Ramsay, but Ramsay makes the final decision, at which point the eliminated player hands over their chef's jacket.
When the competition is down to the final two players, Ramsay will split Hell's Kitchen into two sections, each their own separate restaurant, with each contestant allowed to choose the decoration, style, and menu for their restaurant. Six previously eliminated contestants return to help the two finalists to prepare the meals. Ramsay will use his observations of how the finalists worked in the kitchen and with their teams, as well as feedback from the patrons of each restaurant, to select the ultimate winner of the show.
[edit] Main cast
The US version of Hell's Kitchen stars Gordon Ramsay. The show is narrated by Jason Thompson.
The restaurant's Belgian maître d', Jean-Philippe Susilovic, comes from Petrus, one of Ramsay's London restaurants. Jean-Phillipe was also the maître d' for the first UK series of Hell's Kitchen. Each team also has the services of one of two sous-chefs.
Each team is assisted by a sous-chef. For seasons 1-3, they were Scott Leibfried and MaryAnne Salcedo. In Season 4, MaryAnne was replaced by Gloria Felix.
Unlike in the UK, there has not been a celebrity version of the US series.
[edit] Broadcasting
The theme song of the show is "Fire" by the Ohio Players.
Profanity by Ramsay at the chefs, and sometimes even at the customers, is quite frequent on the show. Due to regulations in the United States regarding profanity and broadcasting, the episodes as aired in the United States employ bleep censoring and pixelization to mask the profanity. An uncensored version of the show airs on The Food Network.
In Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Korea, Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico and Brazil, all the profane language is transmitted uncensored.[citation needed] After the season is complete it is aired in the UK a few months later. It airs after the UK 9pm watershed and therefore all profanity is also transmitted uncensored.
In Australia it was axed after only about 3 weeks on the Nine Network in June 2007, supposedly due to the very foul profanity. However due to very high ratings of his Nightmares series which currently screens 8:30 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Nine Network, it recommenced 30 April 2008.
[edit] Seasons
[edit] Season 1: 2005
The first season premiered on May 30, 2005 and concluded on August 1, 2005. The winner was Michael Wray; he accepted an offer to work with Ramsay in London, but later chose not to go. Wray now works as the head chef in his restaurant Tatou in Los Angeles.
[edit] Season 2: 2006
The second season premiered on June 12, 2006 and concluded on August 14, 2006. Beginning this season, the teams were divided by gender. The winner was Heather West; she was named senior chef of Terra Rossa at the Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino. Her contract has currently expired and she is now a chef at the Broadway Grill in Seattle, Washington.
[edit] Season 3: 2007
The third season premiered on June 4, 2007 and concluded on August 13, 2007. The winner of this season was Rahman "Rock" Harper; he was named head chef of Green Valley Ranch's Terra Verde.
[edit] Season 4: 2008
The fourth season premiered on April 1, 2008, an earlier start due to scheduling for the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. This season has fifteen contestants, rather than the usual twelve. The winner is promised the title of executive chef at Ramsay's The London restaurant in Los Angeles.
[edit] Pop Culture References
Hell's Kitchen has been parodied and referenced in a variety of media, and much of the humor usually emerges from the boisterous persona of Chef Gordon Ramsay.
- Current TV's satirical news show, infoMania, featured a segment about the show in May, 2008.
[edit] External links
- Official Website at FOX.com
- Gordon Ramsay Podcast Interview
- Hell's Kitchen USA at itv.com
