Hell's Kitchen (American TV series) season 7

Season 7 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen began airing on the Fox Network on June 1, 2010. The winner will become head chef at Chef Ramsay's new restaurant at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Chefs

16 chefs will compete in season 7:

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Andrew Forster	28	Farmer	Wake Forest, North Carolina
Autumn Lewis	29	Personal Chef	West Hollywood, California
Benjamin Knack	33	Culinary Instructor	Malden, Massachusetts
Ed Battaglia	33	High School Cooking Teacher	Edgewater Park, New Jersey
Fran Kiler	44	Catering Chef	Rockville Centre, New York
Holli Ugalde	24	Banquet Chef	San Bernardino, California
Jamie Bisoulis	26	Sous Chef	Chicago, Illinois
Jason Ellis	37	Personal Chef	Suwanee, Georgia
Jay Santos	32	Executive Chef	Medford, Massachusetts
Maria Torrisi	24	Kitchen Supervisor	Scranton, Pennsylvania
Mikey Termini	29	Line Cook	Kihei, Hawaii
Nilka Hendricks	28	Line Cook	West Hempstead, New York
Salvatore Coppola	35	Pizzeria Chef	Laurel Springs, New Jersey
Scott Hawley	32	Executive Chef	New York, New York
Siobhan Allgood	25	Pub Executive Chef	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stacey Slichta	38	Private Chef	Studio City, California

This season, the sous chefs are Scott Leibfried for the Blue Team, and newcomer Andi Van Willigan from Santa Monica, California for the Red Team.

Contestant progress

#	Chef	701	702	703	704	705	706
	Autumn	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	NOMB
	Benjamin	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN
	Ed	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN
	Fran	NOM	LOSE	NOM	WIN
	Holli	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN
	Jason	WIN	NOM	WIN	WIN
	Jay	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN
	Maria	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN
	Nilka	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	BoB
	Salvatore	WIN	LOSE	WIN	BoB
	Scott	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOMR
	Siobhan	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN
13	Jamie	LOSE	NOM	OUT
14	Mikey	WIN	OUT
15	Andrew	WIN	LEFT
16	Stacey	OUT

Notes:
^B This contestant was switched from the Red Team to the Blue Team.
^R This contestant was switched from the Blue Team to the Red Team.

  Contestant was a member of the winning team

  Contestant was a member of the losing team

  Contestant was chosen as the Best of the Worst, or the Best of the Best

  Contestant was nominated for elimination but prevailed

  Contestant was nominated for elimination by Chef Ramsay

  Contestant was eliminated.

  Contestant voluntarily left the competition

  Single team - contestant advanced in individual competition

  The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen.

  The winner of Hell's Kitchen.

Episode guide

Each episode consists of a challenge with a reward, a service and an elimination.

Episode 1

• Viewership: 6.2 million
• Original airdate: June 1, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 701, "16 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Overview: At the start of this episode, Chef Ramsay and the contestants introduce themselves to members of the press. In addition, Chef Ramsay promised the media that the first service will be completed, noting that until then the first service in every new season of Hell's Kitchen had invariably ended in disaster. To help meet his goal, Chef Ramsay gives the contestants a series of video demonstrations on how to cook various dishes. However, these tutorials always began with a fire alarm siren, which sounded several times in the early morning hours while they sleep.
• Signature Dishes / Team Challenge: Each team member cooks their signature dish for Chef Ramsay's approval. The team with the most approved dishes wins. The blue team won this challenge. Overall, there were six positive reviews, one mixed review, and nine negative reviews. Half and half of the positive reviews were from each team while the men's team had that one mixed review.
• Award / Punishment: The red team cooks and serves the blue team breakfast in bed.
• Service: Despite the usefulness of the video demonstrations, mistakes began from the very start by both teams including the usual inability to cook food, mistaking crab for lobster, and even tasting food and then continuing to use the spoon to cook with. Eventually, Chef Ramsay started sending chefs back up to the dorm, starting with Fran for her troubles on appetizers, along with Jamie for undercooking the entrees, and Maria for being disrespectful towards Ramsay. Benjamin and Salvatore were also sent up to the dorm later on, also for trouble on the appetizer section, followed by Stacey and Mikey, who both continually served up undercooked fish. However, as mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Chef Ramsay was determined to fulfill his promise to the media, so he combined the remaining half of the red team with the five remaining members of the blue team in the blue kitchen to finish the remainder of service.
• Nominees for elimination: While Chef Ramsay noted that both teams had terrible services, he deemed the blue team to have been slightly better before the teams were merged, and declared them the winners. The red team was told to nominate two contestants for elimination; the team nominated Fran for being the first along with Maria and Jamie to get thrown out of service and also for her excuse for mistaking crab for lobster was that she was a kosher cook and Stacey for being confused on the fish station.
• Elimination: Stacey was the first chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "It's a good thing Stacey's a private chef. Her food wasn't good enough for the public."

Episode 2

• Viewership: 6.29 million
• Original airdate: June 8, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 702, "15 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: Shortly before 5 AM, the contestants were awakened by a sounding alarm clock, amplified with a microphone, and were taken to the kitchen for the next team challenge: each two-person team must cook four egg dishes in four different styles -- soft-boiled, poached, scrambled and sunny side up -- in five minutes. Siobhan, the odd chef out on the red team, must cook alone. The blue team won this challenge.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team takes a helicopter tour of Los Angeles and enjoy a champagne lunch with Chef Ramsay and Jean-Philippe on top one of the skyscrapers. The red team take a delivery of tuna and prep it for the next night's service.
• Service: The blue team got off to a bad start, as Mikey took over 40 minutes to get his first risotto out, and even that was sent back straight away due to the rice being undercooked. Later, Jason undercooked some chicken and attempted to solve the problem by pan-searing it, which infuriated Ramsay when he discovered what Jason was doing. The red team initially coped better, despite Autumn putting too much salt in the team's water pots, and got onto the entrees before the blue team had even served their first appetizer. After that though, the team then suffered a communication breakdown, as none of the chefs were able to time their orders correctly. The blue team recovered afterwards and the teams both completed the service at roughly the same time.
• Withdrawal: During the service, Chef Ramsay threw Andrew (who was talking to the garnishes) out of the kitchen in front of the customers following an argument, for making too many mistakes. Andrew then began to leave the building, thinking that he was thrown out of the competition. Jean-Philippe tried to talk Andrew back into the contest, saying that it was Chef Ramsay's way of testing the contestants (like when he did the same thing with Andrea in Season 5, who eventually fought back. However, unlike Andrea, he was insulted and yet, he was not asked to leave the building through the main entrance), adding that many people would like to be in his shoes to compete. Andrew, however, took off his shoes, saying they could have his shoes, and left the building -- and the competition, making him the second chef to leave Hell's Kitchen. It was mentioned that Andrew's voluntary departure was the second of its kind throughout the history of Hell's Kitchen (the previous was by Jeff in the third episode of Season 1).
• Nominees for elimination: Despite both teams finishing the service, Chef Ramsay was not happy with their performances and declared that there was no winning team, nor a best of the worst. The two teams were both instructed to put one member up for elimination. While some of the blue team members called into question Salvatore's skills and experience, they quickly nominated Jason for elimination. The red team initially looked to be in favor of nominating Nilka, but they ultimately decided to nominate Autumn on the grounds that she was not a team player. However, Chef Ramsay questioned the wisdom of the red team's nomination, leading that team to ultimately decide that Jamie was the worst cook.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay, questioning the wisdom of the blue team's decision as well, overrode all of the nominations and eliminated Mikey, for struggling on two straight dinner services, which made him the third chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason:
  • Andrew's elimination: No formal reason was given for Andrew's departure, but Chef Ramsey called him a joke to the industry before he left. He also didn't receive the full coat hanging and picture burning sequence, although his jacket and burned photo can be seen while Chef Ramsey is hanging up Mikey's jacket.
  • Mikey's elimination: "Mikey was all about appearances. Unfortunately for him, it didn't appear he could cook."

Episode 3

• Viewership:
• Original airdate: June 15, 2010
• Episode recap:
• Team Challenge: In the Team Communication challenge, teams must serve lunch to members of the University of Southern California Marching Band and Cheerleaders. The Red Team won this challenge in a very close finish.
• Award / Punishment: The Red team join Chef Ramsay and his family for a soccer game at the beach. The Blue Team don yellow jumpsuits and head to a portion of the Los Angeles River to clean it of garbage.
• Service: Before service has begun, Fran had burned a portion of her hand while carrying a large pot of hot water, and she refused to see the medic, thinking it would slow the team down if she had to have her hand bandaged. Holli and Salvatore have been tasked to act as assistants to Jean-Phillipe. While Holli has little trouble taking orders for the Red Team, Salvatore's inability to write an order properly stalls the Blue team and has Chef Ramsay screaming at him until Salvatore nearly walks out of Hell's Kitchen at one point. Unlike Andrew in the previous episode however, Jean-Phillipe was able to talk Salvatore back into the game, although Salvatore said that if the Blue team lost, he would nominate himself for elimination. Meanwhile, Fran's burn has gotten worse and Ramsay forces her to seek medical attention after he noticed her arguing with Autumn over the situation, while Jamie was having problems with the garnish station by burning the carrots and mashed potatoes. Siobhan also has some issues with cooking fish. Nonetheless, after a dinner service lasting more than four hours, both teams were able to complete service.
• Nominees for elimination: The Red team were declared the losers and had to nominate two people for elimination. They chose Jamie and Fran.
• Elimination: Jamie was the fourth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "To be a great chef, you need creativity, leadership qualities, and passion. Jamie had passion."

Episode 4

• Viewership:
• Original airdate: June 15, 2010
• Episode recap:
• Overview: After the elimination sequence, Chef Ramsay pulls aside Salvatore and expresses his concerns about the latter's abilities while Salvatore promises to fight back. To that end, early the next day, Salvatore has Scott give him some pointers regarding cooking some of the dishes.
• Team Challenge: Similar to Season 6, each chef rolled a die which had letters on its twelve sides. Upon seeing the letter, the chef had ten seconds to call out an ingredient starting with that letter (unlike the previous season, there was no time limit on calling out an ingredient). The blue team end up with Halibut, endive, salsify, crab, peas, and bacon. The Red team end up with beets, shallots, mangoes, ham, turnips, and duck. The Blue team wins after Chef Ramsay notes the duck fat used in the Red Team's dish is raw.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team were told that they were going skydiving (much to Jason's dismay), but they discovered that they were going to be in a vertical wind tunnel for the day. The red team cleaned the entryway to Hell's Kitchen and prepped both kitchens for the night's dinner service.
• Service: Tonight's service includes numerous celebrities as well as special guests who will be using the chef's tables during this service. The Blue team's special guests are Debi Mazar and her husband, who is also a chef himself. The Red team's special guests are the host of Entertainment Tonight Kevin Frazier and his wife. Despite a slow start on Fish, Salvatore on the Blue Team is able to excel in cooking most of his dishes perfectly. Nilka also excels for the Red Team on the Meat station. On the Red Team, Siobhan mistakes lobster for crab twice on her appetizers as the bins were mislabeled during prep, while Autumn has some issues handling the fish using tongs instead of a spatula. On the blue team, Scott tries to control the service by telling other chefs on what to do, only to have issues with his meat as most of his dishes end up undercooked. Ed also has some issues with improperly cooked mashed potatoes. However, the service is considered to be an improvement from the previous night as it took little more than half the time than the previous service.
• Nominees for elimination: Ramsay appointed Nilka and Salvatore as the best on their respective teams. Nilka nominated Autumn while Salvatore nominated Scott for his issues with the meat station, despite Scott helping Salvatore prepare for this service.
• Elimination: Neither person was eliminated.
• Team Change: Instead of sending either one of them home, Chef Ramsay tells Autumn and Scott to take both of their jackets off and informed Autumn that she'll be working with the Blue team while Scott will be working with the Red team (for the first time in the show's seven-year history, one chef from each team is switched to their rival team, both at the same time).
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "After our best service yet, I've decided to give Autumn and Scott another chance. But they better excel or they'll both be gone."