Hell's Kitchen (American TV series) season 11

Hell's Kitchen (U.S. season 11)
Season 11
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	March 12, 2013 (2013-03-12)
Season chronology

Season 11 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on March 12, 2013, on Fox. The winner will receive a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill in Caesars Palace at Las Vegas.

Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef as well as Andi Van Willigan as the red team's sous chef. Long-time maître d' Jean-Philippe Susilovic returned for the first time since season seven due to his work commitments at Ramsay's restaurant in London, Pétrus. However, previous blue team sous chef Scott Leibfried did not return due to his work obligation at Fleetwood's restaurant in Maui and was replaced by newcomer James Avery from Wall, New Jersey. This is the first season of Hell's Kitchen to start with more than 18 contestants. Unlike previous seasons, this is also the first season of Hell's Kitchen to open up in Las Vegas, where the chefs presented their signature dishes to Chef Ramsay in front of a live audience of 2,500 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.

Chefs

Twenty chefs are competing in season 11.

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Gina Aloise	49	Line Cook	Bronx, New York
Raymond "Ray" Alongi	51	Executive Chef	Boston, Massachusetts
Jacqueline Baldassari	27	Roundsman	Florence, New Jersey
Barret Beyer	35	Head Chef	Long Island, New York
Danielle Boorn	33	Executive Chef	Atlanta, Georgia
Amanda Giblin	28	Executive Chef	Orange County, New York
Nedra Harris	24	Kitchen Manager	Detroit, Michigan
Susan Heaton	29	Culinary Student	Whittier, California
Michael Langdon	33	Executive Chef	Plains, Pennsylvania
Jessica Lewis	26	Chef Tournant	New York, New York
Jeremy Madden	22	Lead Cook	Los Angeles, California
Mary Poehnelt	26	Butcher/Cook	Belchertown, Massachusetts
Anthony Rodriguez	27	Line Chef	New Orleans, Louisiana
Christian Rosati	38	Line Cook/Sandwich Maker	Boston, Massachusetts
Sebastian Royo	32	Sous Chef	Brooklyn, New York
Daniel "Dan" Ryan	27	Head Cook	Westchester, New York
Jonathan "Jon" Scallion	27	Chef de Cuisine	York, Pennsylvania
Cyndi Stanimirov	25	Head Chef	Queens, New York
Ja'Nel Witt	31	Executive Chef	Houston, Texas
Zachary "Zach" Womack	34	Head Line Cook	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Opening sequence/credits

The opening sequence of Season 11 of the show features the contestants battling Transformers-style kitchen appliances, with a robot transforming into Chef Ramsay at the end. The sequence takes place in Hell's kitchen, only to have it collapse and turn to a battlefield.

Credit Order: Amanda, Nedra, Cyndi, Zach, Jon, Dan, Barret, Jacqueline, Christian, Mary, Anthony, Sebastian, Danielle, Raymond, Ja'Nel, Michael, Gina, Jessica, Jeremy, Susan

Contestant progress

No.	Chef	1101/2	1103	1104	1105/6	1106/7	1107	1108	1109	1110/1	1111	1112	1113	1114/5	1116	1117/8	1119
	Cyndi	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM
	Ja'Nel	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN	IN
	Jon	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	BoW	WIN	IN
	Mary	WIN	NOM	LOSE	NOM	NOM	LOSE	BoB	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	WIN	IN
	Susan	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	BoB	NOM	NOM
6	Zach	BoW	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	NOM	NOM	LOSE	NOM	OUT
7	Anthony	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	BoW	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
8	Nedra	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	WIN	OUT
9	Michael	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
10	Ray	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM	NOM	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	OUT
11	Barret	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	WIN	OUT
12	Amanda	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	OUT
13	Jacqueline	WIN	LOSE	NOM	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	OUT
14	Dan	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM	NOM	OUT
15	Jessica	WIN	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
16	Jeremy	NOM	NOM	WIN	OUT
17	Danielle	WIN	NOM	OUT
18	Christian	LOSE	OUT
19	Gina	WIN	LEFT
20	Sebastian	OUT

  Contestant was nominated for elimination by their team, but was not eliminated

  Contestant was nominated for elimination by Chef Ramsay, but was not eliminated

  Contestant was nominated for elimination by their team, and was eliminated

  Contestant was nominated for elimination by Chef Ramsay, and was eliminated

  Contestant was not nominated for elimination, but was still eliminated

  Contestant was named Best of the Best/Worst for their team

  Contestant voluntarily left the competition

  The winner of Hell's Kitchen

  The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen

Episode guide

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

Episode 1

• Original airdate: March 12, 2013
• Introduction: A group of 20 contestants arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, where a bus picked them up to take them to Hell's Kitchen. However, the bus was going around in circles at LAX instead, and for good reason: Chef Ramsay was taking them via Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas, where they would cook their signature dishes. After a brief tour, the contestants went to a Las Vegas 4D attraction, but the tram instead took them directly to the showroom stage at Caesar's Palace, where they would cook their signature dishes then and there, in front of 2500 members of the audience.
• Signature dishes / team challenge: Each contestant had 45 minutes to cook their signature dish, with Chef Ramsay determining which dishes were the best according to taste and appearance; the team with the most accepted dishes won. The women won the challenge, with five dishes (from Nedra, Ja'Nel, Amanda, Jessica, and Jacqueline) chosen by Chef Ramsay to the men's four (from Ray, Jon, Michael, and Christian).
• Award / punishment: The women were treated to a VIP treatment at Caesar's Palace, which included a meet and greet with Celine Dion, followed by her show. The men were forced to return to Los Angeles immediately, on a school bus with no working air conditioner on an 8 hour trip.
• Post award / punishment: The women, after a night on the town in Las Vegas, arrived back at Hell's Kitchen before the men, who spent all day riding on a hot bus. After both teams got back to Hell's Kitchen, they studied the menus. Gina wasn't studying, instead she was focusing on playing with her chef puppet Alfredo, which annoyed and disturbed the women to no end.
• Service – Part 1: Before the start of the service, Chef Ramsay announced that he will guarantee that the service will be completed, leading the teams to try their best at completing it. Gina was not feeling well at the start of the service, leading her to leave the kitchen before the episode ended in Season 11's first TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger.

Episode 2

• Original airdate: March 12, 2013
• Service – Part 2: The service continued where the last episode ended. Gina was not feeling well at the start of the service, leading her to relax and calm down before joining the service late. As Chef Ramsay was telling them this, Jean-Phillipe returned to Hell's Kitchen by the front door, causing Ramsay to humorously ask him where he had been for the previous three years. The service ended up being a typical first service rife with errors. 8 men were thrown out of the service, Sebastian was first to be thrown out for his flippant attitude (including calling Zach "Zacky-wacky") and attempted to return two more times. Michael and Barret were the next to be thrown out for sending raw lamb and overcooked wellington, just as Sebastian unexpectedly returned to the kitchen for the third time, causing Ramsay to warn him that he would be instantly eliminated if he returned a fourth time. Jeremy blew up at Zach when he attempted to give him assistance, then was thrown out for not being able to repeat the orders. Jon sent a risotto to the pass and it was raw, and Dan served up undercooked garnishes at the same time, causing both to be ejected; Ray then tasted Jon's risotto with his bare hands, leading to him being ejected also. Finally, Anthony was thrown out for sending a risotto that was bland and underseasoned. 4 women were also removed from the kitchen; Gina was first for serving raw scallops on the second table, then Susan for sending undercooked potatoes, quickly followed by Danielle who got her orders mixed up and couldn't understand how to work in a brigade, and then Jacqueline, who ignored Chef Ramsay's order for her to help Mary (who had taken over the garnishes) and just stood around drinking water. Zach almost bailed out near the end, having vomited after leaving the kitchen briefly for relief, but rebounded successfully with only him and Christian (who was assigned on Tableside Mussels). In the end, Chef Ramsay's guarantee was successfully fulfilled, as both teams completed service. For having the most contestants remaining and for having been generally more consistent in the service, the women were named the winners, while Zach was singled out as "Best of the Worst" for holding on in the competition.
• Nominees for elimination: The men had to decide who would leave Hell's Kitchen. They initially considered nominating Michael, but ultimately Zach announced that Jeremy and Sebastian should leave.
• Sebastian's elimination: Chef Ramsay decided that Sebastian, for his comical attitude during the service, must leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Sebastian tried to be funny, but it was his cooking that was the joke."

Episode 3

• Original airdate: March 19, 2013
• Wake-Up Call: Shortly before 7AM, the contestants received a wake-up call from a team of soldiers, who ordered the contestants outside for their next challenge.
• Early withdrawal: Prior to the challenge, perhaps due to the constant fighting among her teammates, Gina tendered her resignation from the competition, saying she had a personal issue to attend to. Following her resignation, she returned to the dorm to pack her bags and left Hell's Kitchen through the delivery entrance. This was the first time since Season 7 that a contestant withdrew from Hell's Kitchen, and the first time that a contestant withdrew before a challenge; Jeff and Andrew's withdrawals were both in the middle of dinner service and were the result of arguing with Chef Ramsay.
• Team challenge: Following a wall-climbing demonstration from the soldiers, each team had five minutes to climb a wall, then fetch as many lobsters as they could. The men caught the most lobsters, 37 to the women's 31, where Chef Ramsay announced that this wasn't the real challenge. During the challenge, Anthony sprained his ankle, but opted to keep going in the game. This led to the second part of the challenge, where each team had ten minutes to remove the meat from as many lobsters as they could, to Chef Ramsay's specification – the women won the challenge, 11-8.
• Award / punishment: The ladies spend the day on a yacht, enjoying sushi and a massage. The men must take in a delivery of fish, then prepare them for cooking, as well as dine on fish head soup for lunch.
• Service: The service endured constant mishaps, including Mary and Danielle failing to make risotto on, Christian overcooking the scallops and Jeremy struggling with the table-side lobster, to a point where Chef Ramsay forced Jeremy and Christian to eat their mistakes. In the end, the service ended on both teams when Chef Ramsay found undercooked lamb being served to him at the pass in both instances by Susan and Jon, forcing him to shut the service down.
• Nominees for elimination: As both teams did very poorly on the service, Chef Ramsay declared no winning team, and ordered them to pick two nominees for elimination. Jon revealed that the men chose Jeremy and Christian, while Ja'Nel revealed that the women chose Danielle and Mary.
• Christian's elimination: Chef Ramsay told Christian that he must leave Hell's Kitchen as he was the main reason behind the men's collapse.
• Cliffhanger: After Chef Ramsay dismissed the contestants, he told Jeremy to stay behind. This episode ends with Season 11's second TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger for the next episode.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: (Neither a reason nor a coat hook was given for either Gina's or Christian's elimination. However, they both got the coat hook and burning picture in the following episode's recap. Also, Gina's puppet, "Alfredo Al Dente", humorously received the elimination sequence as well.)

Episode 4

• Original airdate: March 26, 2013
• Jeremy's promise: Picking up where the last episode left off, Ramsay told Jeremy to be more vocal and to step up his game, and Jeremy promised his team that he'll speak up more, much to their approval.
• Team challenge: A volunteer from each team raced with the runners in a special "HK3K" mini-marathon for obesity awareness, while their teammates prep the kitchen for the lunch service that would follow; the first person to return to the kitchen will join their teammates in the prepping, with the service starting when the runners, and the last contestant, arrive. The first team to complete their service wins. Chef Ramsay chooses Dan and Mary to join him in the race while the others prepare lunch, with Dan and Mary stopping at checkpoints along the route to inform their teammates, via webcam, of their location. While Dan gets through the race at a reasonable speed, Mary is significantly slower, causing the women to fall behind. However, when the lunch service began, the women managed to catch up, thanks to Zach using previously disapproved fish and lying to Ramsay about it, insisting that it wasn't the same. As a result, the women won their third challenge in a row, despite their late start. This marked the second season in a row where the men lost the first three challenges as well as the first two services.
• Award / punishment: The women flew on a private jet to Napa Valley's Wine Country, where they spend the day enjoying wine and making their own. The men must clean up and restore the marathon route, as well as prep the kitchens for that night's service.
• Service: Chef Ramsay announced that each dining room would serve tableside Greek salad, and he assigned Cyndi and Jeremy to the task for their teams. Both kitchens had shaky starts on appetizers, with Ray serving a crunchy risotto in the blue kitchen and Jessica serving too many portions of a risotto in the red; however, both recovered quickly. Tension mounted in the blue kitchen between Michael, who was attempting to become a leader, and Dan, who wouldn't take him seriously, culminating in the two nearly coming to blows. Ramsay ordered both men into the storeroom, and demanded that they put aside their differences and work together; they did, albeit with Dan still being resentful. Meanwhile, Danielle and Jacqueline, both working the meat station, made numerous mistakes, with Danielle serving several unacceptable portions of Beef Wellingtons, while Jacqueline served raw chicken, earning Ramsay's anger. In spite of everything, both teams completed service without anyone being kicked out. Ramsay was disappointed by both teams, but Ramsay declared the men the winners because they showed improvement, while deeming the women's service as their worst yet. This victory ended the longest losing streak in Hell's Kitchen history, as the blue team won for the first time in 11 services, the last being the third service of the previous season.
• Nominees for elimination: The losing women must choose two contestants that they feel must leave Hell's Kitchen. The team easily agreed on Danielle as their first nominee, and initially looked as if they would choose her partner on the meat station, Jacqueline as the second nominee. However, Nedra strongly defended Jacqueline and persuaded her teammates that Jessica should instead be the second nominee for her mistakes on the appetizers; Jessica felt betrayed by her team because of this. Upon being given the nominees by Amanda, Chef Ramsay called Danielle and Jessica forward, but also called out Jacqueline for serving the raw chicken.
• Danielle's elimination: When the women failed to come up with an explanation on why Jessica should be nominated, Chef Ramsay ordered her back in line. Then in determining the eliminated contestant, he had Jacqueline step forward, only to order her back in line, leading to Danielle being told to leave Hell's Kitchen, for having been consistently the worst performer on her team.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Every dinner service Danielle looked like a deer in the headlights. And that's why she ended up as dead meat."

Episode 5

• Original airdate: April 2, 2013
• Team challenge: Both teams will sample five meat-based dishes and correctly guess the protein used in making the dish, out of over 50 given on display. The team to guess all five proteins in the fastest time wins. Under the first cover was turkey meatballs, under the second cover was chicken tacos, under the third cover was duck enchiladas, under the fourth cover was veal chop and under the fifth cover was swordfish & chips. The men went first, taking them 10 minutes and 33 seconds to guess all five proteins, mostly due to disastrously slow performances by Michael and Jon on both the turkey and swordfish, and Barret and Jeremy on the duck. The women won the challenge by guessing all five, with 3 minutes and 56 seconds to spare (and only even took that long because Nedra and Jessica wasted over four minutes guessing the duck; the other four proteins were each identified in less than 45 seconds apiece), making this the second time in Hell's Kitchen history that a team has lost four challenges in a row, the first one being Season 9's blue team.
• Award / punishment: The women spend the day at a beach house in Malibu, where they also learn to surf and play volleyball. The men, facing their 4th straight punishment, were forced to bake bread by hand, first grinding the flour—initially by using the ancient mortar and pestle method, and then later switching to a more-"modern" hand-cranked mill. Jeremy would end up going to the emergency room when he collapsed due to exhaustion; he would later return, citing "not eating" as the reason for his breakdown. Later, the men would be forced awake in the middle of the night to bake the bread, putting them at a disadvantage for the next service.
• Service: The next service was the first time in Hell's Kitchen history that breakfast would be served as the main service, instead of dinner; the contestants will serve breakfast to emergency medical technicians and emergency room personnel that had just left the night shift. The menu included a croissant breakfast sandwich, traditional eggs benedict, a classic omelette, blueberry and banana pancakes and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs. The women took a huge early lead due to Ray underseasoning the first batches of scrambled eggs and Jeremy unwittingly serving up one of Chef Ramsay's sample dishes rather than the actual cooked dish. However, the women suffered a meltdown when it came to preparing the Eggs Benedict and the pancakes; Nedra was unfocused in cooking the former dish and made numerous mistakes, while Jacqueline kept burning the pancakes. The men caught up with the women, and on the final ticket Jacqueline burned the pancakes yet again, allowing the men to complete their service first and earning them their second successive service win.
• Nominees for elimination: The losing women must choose two contestants that they feel should leave Hell's Kitchen; they almost immediately decided on Jacqueline and Nedra for their mistakes on their respective stations. This led Nedra to go on a profanity-laden rant against the other women, saying that Mary should be nominated for being the weakest overall, and against all odds, likely out of intimidation, this actually changed the rest of the team's mind, leading to Cyndi announcing that they nominated Mary alongside Jacqueline. However, Amanda said that Nedra should have been nominated, for her numerous mistakes at making pancakes.
• Elimination cliffhanger: Chef Ramsay called Jacqueline and Mary to the front; after they stated their case, he sent both of them back in line, as he had someone else in mind that should be leaving Hell's Kitchen. Before the eliminated person is revealed, however, this episode ends with Season 11's third TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger.

Episode 6

• Original airdate: April 9, 2013
• Episode 5 Elimination – Jeremy's elimination: Continuing from last episode, Chef Ramsay went off the board and told Jeremy to leave Hell's Kitchen. Ramsay cited that Jeremy was "in way over [his] head", and considered his attempt to serve up a sampler dish instead of the actual cooked dish to be unforgivable. This made Jeremy the fourth contestant ever to be eliminated from the winning team and the fifth to leave Hell's Kitchen this season. (Unlike Carol, Salvatore, and Raj, there was no coat hook/burning picture shown for Jeremy, though one was seen during the recap in the next episode.)
• Team challenge: This day includes a breakfast and dinner service; as dinner service begins in a few hours and prep time is needed, there is no team challenge in this episode, a first for this series.
• Service: Prior to the start of service, Jean-Philippe and the wait staff talk about their horror stories about working with the diners. This motivated Chef Ramsay to nominate Barret and Jessica to be waiters for this service; however, their first tickets required several rewrites as Chef Ramsay tore up the errant tickets. In addition, Mary, during prep work, had herself tested for pregnancy, as she missed her period and urinated frequently; the results came up negative. During the service, both teams endured numerous mistakes, including Ray overcooking the halibut and scallops on the blue team, and refusing to accept Dan's help (who was also assigned to the station), which infuriated Ramsay because Anthony's perfectly cooked meat couldn't be served. Meanwhile on the red team, Amanda had trouble getting answers from Susan, leading to their appetizers usually reaching the pass over a minute apart, and Mary and Nedra served dangerous raw pork. As a result, Chef Ramsay threw both teams out of their kitchens and had the sous chefs finish service. Furthermore, Sous Chef James came into the blue team's dorm with a plate of overcooked halibut, berating the contestants for their mistakes and threatening to quit. In addition, Chef Ramsay called both teams downstairs, only to stop them in the stairwell and order them to get back upstairs and nominate two from each team that should leave Hell's Kitchen. To that effect, both teams were losers, although Chef Ramsay hinted that Anthony was the best contestant on the blue team that night.
• Nominees for elimination: Susan revealed that the Red Team nominated Mary and Nedra, both for raw pork. Anthony announced that the Blue Team nominated Dan, for his mistakes, and Ray, for being largely unresponsive in that night's service. This leads to Dan yelling and flipping off his teammates.
• Cliffhanger: After stating their cases, Chef Ramsay called all four contestants to the front one at a time, telling each of them to take off their jackets. He then said that he is about to do something that was never done before on Hell's Kitchen, ending this episode with a consecutive TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger – the fourth in six episodes, the most ever over a course of so few episodes.

Episode 7

• Original airdate: April 16, 2013
• Episode 6 Elimination – Probation: Continuing from last episode, the "Hell's Kitchen first" that Chef Ramsay promised was probation for the four contestants nominated for elimination: Mary, Nedra, Dan and Ray, in which he said that he'll keep the jackets until they accomplished a task that was worth getting their jackets back, and that anyone who had failed to earn back their jacket by the end of the episode would be eliminated.
• Team challenge: The contestants had five minutes to select five ingredients for each of the six Oriental dishes that each team will make – the ingredients are chosen by picking up oversized fortune cookies with chopsticks and opening them, revealing the ingredient to be used. After selecting the ingredients, each team had 40 minutes to cook the dishes. Determining which team gets the points for the particular dish is known Oriental chef Martin Yan. Thanks to Anthony's chow mein dish, the men won their first challenge of the season. In addition, the win enabled Dan and Ray to get their jackets back, since both had cooked good-tasting dishes despite not getting a point for the team (Dan's dish had undercooked rice, and while Chefs Ramsay and Yan both loved Ray's dish, they felt that Cyndi's was even better).
• Award / punishment: The men spend the day in a paintball war. The women must spend the day making potstickers and dumplings for the night's service; furthermore, the Red Team dine on balut eggs, causing Amanda and Susan to vomit.
• Service: Tonight's service is the first of the season to use Chef's Tables to serve attending celebrities: seated at the Blue Team's table is Entourage star Rex Lee, while the Red Team's table is seating film director Adam Shankman. Ja'Nel and Ray were assigned to serve additional appetizers tableside, and while Ja'Nel did this flawlessly, Ray was so slow that he caused his team to have to recook some of their appetizers since they had gone cold by the time he was ready. While the teams managed to complete appetizers without too much trouble (with Nedra's risotto and Mary's dish earning them back their jackets), they both had trouble with the entrees – examples included Barret accidentally leaving parchment paper on the fish, Jessica repeatedly serving overcooked and undercooked fish, and Susan constantly getting her times wrong and then accidentally dropping the lamb after re-firing it again for being raw. Both teams successfully completed service with no ejections, but Chef Ramsay felt that it was still not good enough for either team to win, due to the numerous errors.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay ordered both teams to each pick two nominees from each team that should leave Hell's Kitchen. Mary announced that the women chose Jessica (for being spaced out and clueless) and Susan (for the debacle with the lamb); Dan revealed that the Blue Team chose himself (merely for being the "weakest link") and Ray (for his numerous errors). Dan protested his nomination, as he committed no errors during the service; he went on to say that Barret should have been nominated for mistakes with the halibut.
• Jessica's elimination: After each contestant stated their case, Chef Ramsay called Dan over, only to order him back in line, agreeing with Dan's statement that he did nothing wrong in the service. He then told Jessica that she must remove her jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen. Ramsay felt Jessica didn't show enough passion and wasn't meeting his expectations due to her good start.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "When Jessica first arrived, I had high expectations for her. Unfortunately, she let us both down."
• Production note: The episode was dedicated to Richard Brooker.

Episode 8

• Original Airdate: April 23, 2013
• Team challenge: The contestants had ten minutes to herd animals, representing a protein, into pens marked with the names of starches, creating a protein/starch combo that they were told to cook in 45 minutes for judging by Jon Shook, the head chef at the Animal restaurant. They were also told to drop two dishes from each team, and the women dropped Jacqueline and Cyndi's dishes, while the men dropped Jon's and, much to his anger, Dan's dishes. First up were the turkey dishes, and despite being slightly undercooked, Nedra's dish beat out Ray's dry, overcooked meatballs. The women also won for the duck category, giving them a 2-0 lead. The men earned a point on the lamb dishes, as Zach's was cooked perfectly, while Mary's was raw. In the pork dishes, Barret had a perfectly cooked pork loin, while Amanda's dish was severely overcooked, tying the score at 2. Finally, Ja'nel's goat dish clinched the challenge for the women, over Michael's badly overcooked dish, which Chef Shook likened to a dog chew. Chef Ramsay then asked to taste Dan's dish, since he had also cooked goat, and while he and Chef Shook agreed that Ja'nel's dish would have still won the challenge, they both said that Dan's dish was far superior to Michael's.
• Award / punishment: The women spend the day at the Aquarium of the Pacific, which includes feeding the penguins and swimming with the fishes. The men must tend to the animals at the petting zoo, and set up for the Family Night service the next night. Dan continued to quarrel with his team-mates during the punishment, eventually leading him to nearly walking out of the competition.
• Service: Chef Ramsay announced that it is "Family Night" in Hell's Kitchen, and his family will be in attendance. Both kitchens had a decent run on appetizers, although Dan burnt and under-seasoned a pizza in the blue kitchen, and Jacqueline burnt scallops in the red, earning Ramsay's wrath since "it's the easiest thing on the menu" and it halted an otherwise perfect table. On entrees, the men worked to serve Ramsay's family, but Ray delivered an undercooked burger for Ramsay's son, Jack, though he recovered with an acceptable one. However, Barret made numerous mistakes on the meat station, sending lamb that he knew was raw, and then sending undercooked chicken to the pass for Sous Chef James's wife, who is seven months pregnant. The red kitchen, however, had an almost flawless entrée stage, mostly thanks to Mary on the meat station, and after serving all their tickets, Ramsay ordered them into the blue kitchen to help the men out, where Mary directed them to completion, effectively making her the best contestant on the red team that night. Ramsay berates the men for their embarrassing loss, as well as losing all but one each of their services and challenges this season (not counting the breakfast service, which they won, only to have Jeremy eliminated anyway), ordering them to nominate their two weakest chefs.
• Nominees for elimination: Ramsay asked Jon for the nominees. The men nominated Barret, for his struggles on the meat section, and Dan, not only for struggling with the pizzas, but for being a lousy team player; Dan stated that he didn't need his teammates to like him, to which Ramsay responded by saying that he still needed to work well with them.
• Dan's elimination: Ramsay eliminated Dan, as he felt that he was holding the team back. Dan vulgarly insulted his teammates in his elimination segment, singling out Barret, Michael and Zach in particular. Chef Ramsay then warned the men that if they lose again, he may send more than one of them home next time.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Dan was just too much of a wild card. There's no way I'm betting a restaurant in Vegas on him."

Episode 9

• Original Airdate: April 30, 2013
• Team challenge: The chefs were each given a cut of steak, and told to cook it to medium rare and serve it with a spice rub and/or sauce of their own making. Since the Red team had an extra member, Nedra and Susan were told to work in a team. Cyndi and Jon faced off first with their porterhouse steaks, and despite enjoying them both, Chef Ramsay felt that Jon's had the edge. Despite feeling that they were respectively a little sweet and a little too spicy for his liking, Chef Ramsay awarded both Zach and the duo of Nedra and Susan a point for their filet steaks. Neither Amanda nor Michael earned a point for their New York strips, as Amanda's was bland and underseasoned, and Michael's was medium instead of medium rare. Both Anthony and Jacqueline earned points for their ribcaps, for making risky ideas (serving their steaks with grilled banana and lemon grass respectively) work well. In the battle of the hanger steaks, Ja'Nel's was beautifully cooked and seasoned, while Barret (who had shaved himself bald prior to the challenge) severely overcooked his steak, earning Ja'Nel a point and tying the scores; on top of that, Chef Ramsay named her dish as the best in the challenge for the second week in a row. Finally, Mary and Ray faced off against each other with their ribeyes, and despite her dish being a little too sweet for Chef Ramsay's liking, Mary took the winning point by default, since Ray's ribeye was medium instead of medium rare. Chef Ramsay took the men to task for their sloppiness, telling them that while their steaks generally tasted better, three of them (Ray's, Michael's and Barret's) were overcooked, which had cost them the challenge.
• Award / punishment: The women were treated to an afternoon of pampering by a swimming pool, while the men were tasked with cutting steak for the next service, along with fully prepping both kitchens.
• Service: For the steakhouse night, Zach and Susan were assigned to serve prime rib tableside. The Blue team got off to a solid start, though Barret had trouble with the sides, cooking fishcakes which weren't on order and not supplying the salad for a table of appetizers. Ray then severely undercooked the team's first order of steaks, resulting in Michael deciding to take over the task of cooking the steaks. Things ran much smoother after that, and the Blue team completed their service with few issues. The Red team meanwhile had a decidedly rocky service, getting off to a bad start when Mary first didn't realise that an order of sliders had been called for their first table, and then left a hair in the order that she eventually served. After that, the team managed to complete their appetizers, but quickly stalled again on the entrees, as Jacqueline and Amanda (who were cooking the steaks) inexplicably thought that since one of the guests at their first table had ordered prime rib, it meant no other steaks were required. The next few tables went out smoothly, but they got stalled again on an order of filet steaks, as Jacqueline and Amanda repeatedly served up raw filets, and Nedra's attempt to help them didn't make things go any smoother. This resulted in Ramsay ejecting the trio, plus Cyndi (seemingly under the mistaken belief that she had helped cook the steaks, despite the fact that she had actually been on garnishes, leaving Cyndi confused and angry), after which he called Susan back into the kitchen (having Jean-Philippe take over serving the prime rib) and had her help Ja'Nel and Mary complete the service. Chef Ramsay named the Blue team as the winners, for not having anyone ejected and making fewer mistakes overall, and told the Red team to nominate two for elimination.
• Nominees for elimination: Amanda agreed that she should be put up for elimination, and Jacqueline attempted to persuade the other women to nominate Mary for her mistakes on the sliders. However, Cyndi announced the nominees as Amanda and Jacqueline.
• Jacqueline's elimination: Chef Ramsay told Amanda step forward, only to order her back in line, leading to Chef Ramsay telling Jacqueline to leave Hell's Kitchen, feeling that she had a lackadaisical attitude and had been a consistently mediocre performer.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Jacqueline talked a good game, but unfortunately for her, I need someone who can deliver."

Episode 10

• Original Airdate: May 7, 2013
• Team challenge: The chefs were told that the next service will be Hell's Kitchen's first quinceañera service, and each team will be making five course tasting menu, based on the suggestions of Breanna, the girl celebrating her quinceañera. The women won the challenge – their seventh out of eight this season.
• Award / punishment: The women spend the day at the Knott's Berry Farm theme park. The men, facing yet another punishment, prepare the dining area for Breanna's quinceañera, under the watchful eye and control of the party planner.
• Service: Tonight's quinceañera service is structured differently, with timing being the most crucial element. Chef Ramsay stated that after appetizers, Breanna would do a traditional waltz, so appetizers need to be finished on both teams together. Both kitchens worked together to serve Breanna's 13-guest table first, and they managed to do this despite a brief slip-up by Amanda. The blue team's appetizer stage went almost flawlessly, thanks to Jon and Anthony, and they finished well ahead of the red team, who once again were held up by Amanda, as well as Nedra who was attempting to help; at one point, Amanda claimed that Nedra had served a badly-seared piece of tuna, even though it was unclear who actually made it. After Nedra proceeded to drop a piece of tuna on the floor, Breanna's godmother and Jean-Philippe came into the kitchen and told the chefs that they couldn't wait anymore, and began the waltz before appetizers were finished in the red kitchen, much to Ramsay's anger. The entrée stage went a little better for the women, despite Nedra and Cyndi serving undercooked portions of meat. The men however suffered many setbacks, including Zach repeatedly serving less potatoes than were needed (and snapping at Ramsay when confronted), and Barret struggling with making pasta as well as leaving a splinter in a burnt kebab. In the post-mortem, and despite not kicking anybody out, Ramsay declared both teams losers, calling the women a "disaster" and the men "embarrassing".
• Nominees for elimination: Ray announced that the men easily nominated Barret and Zach (the latter protesting his nomination), while the women nominated Amanda and, with Ja'Nel admitting that it was a tough decision, Cyndi (who insisted that Nedra should have been nominated).
• Elimination – Part 1: Amanda's elimination: Chef Ramsay eliminated Amanda, for getting overwhelmed too easily.
• Elimination Cliffhanger: After Amanda left, Chef Ramsay said that the service was so bad, that he wasn't finished, ending this episode with Season 11's fifth TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger, leaving the fates of Cyndi, Zach, and Barret uncertain until the next episode.

Episode 11

• Original Airdate: May 13, 2013
• Episode 10 Elimination – Part 2: Barret's elimination: Chef Ramsay told Cyndi that she's safe, and orders her back in line, leaving Zach and Barret for elimination. A moment later, Chef Ramsay told Barret to leave Hell's Kitchen. This was the first time that more than one contestant was eliminated during the after-service elimination process during regular game play. Also, there is no "jacket hang and picture burn" sequence for Barret.
• Team challenge: A representative from each team had 30 seconds to collect as many slips of paper as they can while in a wind chamber, similar to ones used for cash giveaways. Then, each team had 45 minutes to cook five dishes based on those ingredients, in which they will be graded not only for taste and texture, but also for aesthetic appeal. From each team, Chef Ramsay chose three of the five based on looks alone (which resulted in excluding Ray, Michael, Nedra, and Susan) in which those dishes will be tested by Chef Ramsay and the editor of People magazine. For each dish, both will give a score out of 50 for an accumulative score out of 100; the team with the most points wins. The women won their fourth consecutive challenge – their eighth out of nine this season. As such, this was the first time that a team lost at least 4 consecutive challenges more than once.
• Award / punishment: The women joined Chef Ramsay for a photo shoot for People magazine, with Mary's highest-scoring dish from the team challenge showcased. Each contestant also won a Vita-Mix blender. The men, in yet another punishment, must clean up the dorms; while they were cleaning, Ray got upset when he found cookies in Nedra's bed. In addition, Jon and Michael were called to the photo shoot to deliver champagne to the women – by tricycle.
• Service: That evening, Chef Ramsay called both teams to his office to inform them that returning U.S. Army servicemen will be dining tonight in a special private dining service. In this special service, two twelve-tops were set, in which a team of wait staff will serve each appetizer and entrée simultaneously to all diners, and because of that, timing is crucial. Both teams had numerous problems with Ray's poor leadership, Zach sabotaging Ray's station, Nedra attempting to cook pasta in cold water, and Susan mistiming her steaks. These mistakes had also led to the course line-up being shuffled, causing the timing of the service to be off. Because of the poor service in front of the returning soldiers, Chef Ramsay declared both teams losers and asked them to nominate one from each team for elimination.
• Nominees for elimination: Mary stated that the women had trouble deciding between Nedra and Susan, but ultimately nominated Nedra, while Jon announced that the men nominated Ray, but strongly considered Zach before; Chef Ramsay then called Nedra, Ray, and Zach down.
• Ray's Elimination: In a psych-out, Chef Ramsay told Nedra to step forward and "give me... your best performance of your life next service", with Chef Ramsay eliminating Ray from Hell's Kitchen, but he also said that he respected Ray for coming into the competition in the first place.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: Ray's age wasn't the issue, it was his cooking. And I wasn't getting any younger waiting for him to improve.

Episode 12

• Original Airdate: May 13, 2013
• Team challenge: There was not a team challenge this episode. Chef Ramsay asked the teams to spend the day creating their own menus for that night's service, which he will examine before the service. The men had an easy time of creating their menu, despite Zach (who was acting as his alter-ego Grant Banks) barely participating at first. The women, however, had trouble as Nedra (who was told by Chef Ramsay to "be seen" on the menu) kept making suggestions that the other women looked down on, but they finally let her put a gumbo on the menu (mostly because they wanted her to be quiet). In the examination, Chef Ramsay liked the men's menu as it stood, but he thought the women's menu was a disaster (ironically, Nedra's gumbo was the only thing he had even faint praise for), requiring numerous changes before the start of service several minutes later.
• Service: The women had only a few minor problems during service and won the service, while Michael had problems with the fish station and Chef Ramsay sent him for a time-out. Zach also brought up raw pork. While the men were nominating two people for elimination, Chef Ramsay called the women to his office and told them to nominate one member that should go to the men's team, in order to even out the playing field. In the meeting that followed, they decided that they all should join the men, but as only one could be transferred over, they decided to draw names, in which Cyndi was the lucky winner.
• Nominees for elimination: Anthony announced that the men failed to reach a consensus in deciding which two persons should be nominated, leading to Chef Ramsay taking a vote at elimination. Two votes went to Michael and Zach, nominating them for elimination.
• Michael's elimination: Chef Ramsay saved Zach for a third consecutive time, while Michael was the third consecutive man to leave.
• Team switch – Part 1: Chef Ramsay then asked the women if they had chosen one member to go to the men as a replacement, but when Ja'Nel told him that they all wanted to go, resulting in drawing names instead, Chef Ramsay got angry, as only deliberation amongst contestants should decide who to go, not a lottery, ending this episode with Season 11's sixth TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger. After 10 straight dinner services, this marked the longest time a season has went on without any chefs switching teams.

Episode 13

• Original Airdate: May 23, 2013
• Episode 12 Team Switch – Part 2: Continuing from the previous episode, Chef Ramsay ordered the women to actually discuss amongst themselves on who should move to the men's team. During the deliberation, most of the women, who were shocked that Zach hadn't been eliminated and did not want to work with him, recanted on their previous desires to be the one to join the men. Ultimately, the women decided that Nedra would make the move.
• Team challenge: Each team member was paired up with a member from the opposite team, in which they spun a wheel to decide which style of ethnic dish they should cook. Each space on the wheel has a nationality, each corresponding to a box done up in that country's colors. Wherever the wheel lands, the box's contents are revealed, in which they have 45 minutes to cook a dish consisting of a protein of their choice, and the ingredients revealed. Each dish would then be judged by Chef Ramsay and the editor of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. The Red Team won their fifth consecutive challenge – their ninth out of ten this season, scoring three dishes to the Blue Team's one, and only being prevented from scoring a clean sweep because Mary burnt the rice for her Indian dish, which allowed Jon to earn the Blue Team's only point. Zach lost the golden opportunity to tie the score when his Japanese dish's chicken was not only too dry, but resembled more of a Chinese delicacy, which was not chosen in this challenge.
• Award / punishment: The Red Team split $2000 amongst themselves for clothes shopping at a boutique, followed by a private dining service at Mr. Chow. Also, each contestant won a set of copper-clad cookware. The Blue Team, in yet another punishment, must take a delivery of wine, slice 40 pounds each of lemons and limes, and prep both kitchens for service that night. Nedra, the Blue Team's newest member, was reluctant to do any work in the punishment, to a point where she was not finished in prepping the Red Team's kitchen after they returned from their field trip. She also berated Zach on his performance in the competition, though Zach ended up feeling insulted over her diatribe.
• Service: Tonight's service was a normal service, though amongst the Red Team's diners that night was Kelly Hu, one of the stars of Hawaii Five-0. The Red Team had endured many mishaps, including Susan cooking four orders of risotto when only two were required, and Ja'Nel first undercooking the scallops and then undercooking the halibut. The Blue Team was even worse, not even making it to the entrée stage, as Jon undercooked the scallops, and the team had to suffer from Nedra's apathy for the service, as she took more time organizing her station than actually cooking, and angrily shoved Zach and Anthony aside when they tried to assist her. When it was determined that the service was going downhill fast without any chance for recovery, Chef Ramsay ordered both kitchens shut down, then had Jean-Philippe apologize to the diners, saying that the night's service was the worst ever in Hell's Kitchen history.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay called both teams downstairs, only to stop them in the stairwell and order them to get back upstairs and nominate one from each team that should leave Hell's Kitchen, having them focus on their overall service in the competition. Despite Ja'Nel being the most directly at fault for the Red Team's failure, the other women still considered her the strongest member of the team, and so selected Susan for needlessly cooking the extra risotto, along with a general feeling that she was their weakest cook. The three men on the Blue Team chose Nedra without any hesitation, leading to her berating Zach and Anthony and saying that one of them should be the nominee. On the Red Team, Susan announced that she was selected for elimination, though she said that she felt that she had committed no errors. On the Blue Team, when Chef Ramsay asked if they made a decision, Zach answered "yes", but Nedra said "no". Ramsay then polled the three men, and all of them said that Nedra should leave.
• Nedra's elimination: Following their pleas, Chef Ramsay determined that Nedra should be the one to leave Hell's Kitchen, for holding up the Blue Team in the service, along with her refusal to admit any fault whatsoever for her bad performance. He did however have a few words for the remaining chefs, saying that if they want a black jacket, next service has to be perfect. (Like Rachel in season 2, Robert & Sabrina in season 6 and Carrie & Natalie in season 9, Nedra also was paid a retrospective montage during her elimination).
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Nedra wore a red jacket and a blue jacket. But after tonight's performance, I knew that she wouldn't be wearing a black jacket."

Episode 14

• Original Airdate: May 30, 2013
• Team challenge: The chefs were told they would be tested on their ability to determine food by touch. Anthony and Cyndi volunteered with Anthony winning the challenge 3 to 2. Ramsay then told Anthony he won nothing because the real challenge was the "11th Annual Hell's Kitchen Taste Test". Both teams were tested on being able to identify several ingredients by taste alone. Chef Ramsay told the men to decide among themselves who would be going twice since they were down a member beforehand. Zach brought the men to an early lead but it was taken away with Anthony failing to identify any of his four ingredients and Ja'nel naming three of four ingredients. The women remained with the lead after Jon and Cyndi were only able to identify two ingredients. In the end, it was Susan versus Zach (going twice because the men were down a member) with Susan winning it for the women once again, their sixth consecutive challenge win, and their tenth out of eleven this season, giving them the best challenge record in Hell's Kitchen history. This also marked the first time in Hell's Kitchen history that one team won six consecutive challenges.
• Award/Punishment: The women were treated to the finest seafood at the Nobu restaurant in Malibu. They then went for a horseback ride in the Santa Monica Mountains. The men, in yet another punishment, must take a delivery of supplies, which also included flour (which Anthony leaked all over the place) and ice (which Anthony blindly took more than what was ordered); in addition, they must prep both kitchens for dinner service the next day.
• Surprise Immunity Challenge - Part 1: Chef Ramsay brought all the chefs down before service to talk about earning the black jackets and asked the chefs to do an individual challenge, to gauge how well they came along since their first encounter in Las Vegas. The contestants had 45 minutes to create whatever they want to show Ramsay their skills. The chef who wins will be safe from elimination at dinner service. Ja'nel starts off strong and sits in the "immunity chair". Anthony goes but his dish is not as good as Ja'Nel's so he loses. Then Susan presented her dish of lamb (which she selected in order to redeem herself from serving raw lamb on two occasions), but failed as the lamb in this challenge was also raw. Jon takes Ja'nel's place with three remaining chefs to showcase their food. Because of Mary's sauce she is out now too. Zach then takes his shot at immunity but falls short because of the portioning of the prawns and filet on his dish. Now, with only one chef remaining (Cyndi) the pressure is on Jon and her. The episode then ends with its seventh TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger, when Chef Ramsay was about to announce whether Cyndi won immunity over Jon.

Episode 15

• Original Airdate: June 6, 2013
• Surprise Immunity Challenge - Part 2: Chef Ramsay decided that Jon won the surprise immunity, ensuring him safe from elimination.
• Service: Chef Ramsay increased the pressure by inviting Extra's Maria Menounos to the men's kitchen and Suburgatory's Jeremy Sisto to the women's kitchen. Anthony was criticized for not understanding Chef Ramsay's "out in one" order, but did well at getting the VIP's order of scallops to the table perfectly. Jon screwed up with a bland risotto off the start. Cyndi was called out for several incidents including producing too much risotto, having a messy station and not calling out orders to the other chefs, but still produced good food. Anthony, however, gave the wrong number of lobster tails for Jon's risotto and then made overcooked tails. Anthony and Zach suffered communication issues when Anthony took his fish up before Zach was done his meat. Susan was the standout performer on the red team; first she finally got redemption by cooking perfectly cooked lamb, and later sent up perfect wellingtons. A bump happened when Ja'Nel cut herself badly and had to leave the kitchen to have it seen to. She briefly struggled to get in sync with the rest of the team after coming back, but soon got back up to speed. Anthony produced raw halibut and Ramsay took him to the back room asking why he kept producing inconsistent results. Zach then cooked raw wellingtons and realized he had no prepped wellingtons as backup, resulting in Chef Ramsay taking Susan's perfectly cooked wellingtons to use in place of Zach's. Zach showed confusion in the final orders of the night and overcooked the lamb. Chef Ramsay then did the work for Zach because he hadn't responded to his orders fast enough. The women, however, finished their service before the men, resulting in yet another lost dinner service for the men. Chef Ramsay then told the women to decide who will go to the men's team, while ordering Jon, who was still immune and was named the Best of the Worst for making only one error with the risotto, to decide who should leave (this marks the first time since the ninth episode of season 8 that Ramsay has given a contestant sole nomination rights). Ja'Nel volunteered to go to the blue team, saying she can get Zach to communicate or Anthony to wake up.
• Nominees for Elimination: Jon nominated Anthony for elimination. However, Chef Ramsay personally nominated Zach for elimination. In their explanation on why they should stay, Anthony said that he believed he needed to just kickstart his confidence, but Chef Ramsay doubted his ability to keep his confidence high. Chef Ramsay told Zach that he hit a wall; Zach then explained that he still had fight left in him, and he loves what he does.
• Anthony's elimination: In a psych-out, Chef Ramsay decided to eliminate Anthony from the competition, leaving the women and Jon visibly surprised. Chef Ramsay felt that Anthony lacked the fightback and confidence that Zach had. Ramsay then asked the women who they had chosen to join the two remaining men, and Susan revealed that they had selected Ja'Nel; Ramsay agreed that this was the correct choice, and handed Ja'Nel a blue jacket. However, he warned Ja'Nel not to follow in Nedra's footsteps.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Anthony hobbled through Hell's Kitchen, and even though his leg eventually got better, his cooking didn't."

Episode 16

• Original Airdate: June 13, 2013
• Team challenge: The teams were challenged with their final team challenge—the infamous communication challenge. The contestants had to prepare three dishes of Chef Ramsay's choosing, all from the regular Hell's Kitchen menu. Only one chef from each team was allowed in the kitchen at a time, for only five minutes. When their time was up, the next chef took his or her place. The previous chef was given 15 seconds to brief the next chef. Chef Ramsay then compared the same dishes from each team for completeness, taste, and appearance to decide the winning team. Chef Ramsay instructed the first two chefs they would need to make a rack of lamb, a chicken and halibut. Zach and Cyndi started the challenge, in which Cyndi started preparation properly while Zach prepared only one of the dishes leaving Ja'nel to prepare everything else while Mary found issues with what Susan was doing with the halibut in the second round. In the third round, Cyndi and Jon found issues themselves. In the second rotation, each of the chefs struggled on each team in trying to finish plating the dishes. Mary presents a lamb with badly prepared lamb and bad tasting garnish while Jon served raw lamb but delicious garnish. Zach presented a beautifully cooked chicken while Susan was not able to give a prepared chicken. Finally Cyndi gave badly cooked halibut while Ja'nel gave a beautifully cooked dish. In the end, the Blue Team won their second and final team challenge with two approved dishes, ending the Red Team's winning streak, who had no dishes approved.
• Award/Punishment: The blue team took a tour of Los Angeles from a helicopter, then visited the Gillette Ranch, where they sampled over $20,000 worth of the rarest caviar in the world. The red team had to unload a truck of potatoes to prepare meals for the Los Angeles Mission and prepare both kitchens for dinner service. During the unloading of the truck, Cyndi experienced an asthma attack, resulting in her needing to see the medic, but she was able to continue the punishment.
• Service: At the beginning of the service, Ramsay announced the final five remaining after the service will receive a black jacket. Ramsay also told the chefs over 500 people were turned away due to a full dining room. Jon and Ja'nel started the service off with perfect risotto and scallops while Zach flubbed with the amount of wellingtons he prepared. On the red side, Susan and Cyndi also prepared perfectly cooked risotto and lobster tails. Zach then burned the lamb towards the beginning of service. Cyndi then started preparing the entrees early before all appetizers were served and improperly prepared lobster tails. Ja'nel and Jon finished appetizers while Mary who was helping Cyndi with appetizers served raw tails, resulting in Ramsay taking the entire red team to the back of the kitchen for a talk. After the talk the red team completed the appetizers. Zach was once again non-communicative to Chef Ramsay and his team in preparing entrees, however they were still able to prepare properly cooked dishes. Zach then served overcook lamb but eventually pushes through it. The red team finishes service and Zach finishes service with a properly cooked lamb. Ramsay announces both teams won but also announced the red team and the blue team will each lose one member as he's only going to be giving out four black jackets. This is the first time since season 8 that both teams were declared winners.
• Nominees for elimination: Ja'Nel revealed that the blue team nominated Zach, stating issues with communication and the entrees. Cyndi announced that she was the red team's nominee. However, Chef Ramsay questioned why Cyndi was named the weakest, then after explaining again he wanted the weakest chef nominated, each of the chefs nominated each other with Cyndi nominating Mary, Mary nominating Susan and Susan nominating Cyndi again. Due to the tie of nominations, Ramsay asks Ja'nel who the weakest chef is on the red team to break the tie. Ja'nel responded that the weakest chef is Susan, so Ramsay called Susan down.
• Zach's elimination: Chef Ramsay decided to eliminate Zach, deciding that he was given one too many chances and wasn't fulfilling Ramsay's expectations; then he told the chefs there will be one more thing the chefs will have to do to get their black jackets before deciding on a second person to send home. (This was the first season to have a top 5 consisting of 4 women and one man. Zach's elimination also marked the first time in the show's history that six consecutive members from a single team were eliminated.)
• Chef Ramsay's Reason:

"There once was a chef named Zach,

For words he didn't lack.

But in the kitchen,

He was no magician,

And he won't be coming back."

Episode 17

• Original Airdate: June 20, 2013
• Prologue: Before introducing the next challenge, the remaining chefs are shown a video from Chef Ramsay that showed each of the chef's families wishing them luck. Ramsay then added that the chefs face one more challenge and he unveiled a curtain which actually had the family members in the restaurant. After each chef spent time with their loved ones, Ramsay announced that he'll give all five remaining chefs black jackets.
• Individual challenge: Each chef had 45 minutes to use a pressure cooker to prepare a dish using one of five cheap cuts of meat, each hidden in a pressure cooker, and fashion the dish as a five-star entree. Each chef will then present them for tasting for Ramsay, James Beard award-winner and owner of Osteria Mozza, Nancy Silverton; and Los Angeles magazine's Dine Editor Leslie Barger Suter, the first person to receive the James Beard award for culinary journalism. Each judge will give one to five stars; the contestant with the most stars wins. Susan's pork belly received mixed reactions (due to her constant opening of the pressure cooker, not allowing it to cook properly), resulting in nine stars from Ramsay and the two judges, three apiece. Jon was commended for his presentation but his lamb leg was not cooked enough, which gave him 10 stars (three each from Nancy and Leslie, four from Chef Ramsay). Cyndi's pork roast was cooked well but the presentation was very poor, resulting in 7 stars (two each from Nancy and Leslie, three from Chef Ramsay). Ja'nel was given rave reviews for both presentation and cooking of the ribs, resulting in 14 stars (five from Nancy and Chef Ramsay, four from Leslie). Mary's beef bourguignon was commended for cooking well made meat and the complimenting ingredients and thought her hand-made pasta was ambitious, ultimately giving her the challenge victory with the perfect score of 15 stars.
• Award/Punishment: Mary was given the chance to dine with her family at Wolfgang Puck's WP 24 atop The Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles. The losing chefs were to "volunteer" by working maintenance for Tree People at Coldwater Canyon, shoveling mulch, digging up the side of a hill, and other environmental duties. Later at Hell's Kitchen, they sort out the recyclables and organics for Recycling Day.
• Pre-Service: Chef Ramsay calls the chefs down to the kitchen to remind them that it will be the most challenging service yet forthcoming because they'll all work as one single team. Ramsay then announces that they'll be competing against a team of five chefs that he has worked with before and proclaims that they are some of the best he's worked with. Before the first chef is revealed, the episode ends with a TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger.

Episode 18

• Original Airdate: June 27, 2013
• Pre-Service cont'd: Chef Ramsay welcomes the chefs who will compete in the opposing kitchen against the final five contestants. The chefs were: Winner of Hell's Kitchen 3 Rahman "Rock" Harper, winner of Hell's Kitchen 4 Christina Machamer, winner of Hell's Kitchen 6 Dave Levey, winner of Hell's Kitchen 8 Nona Sivley and the winner of Hell's Kitchen 9, Paul Niederman.
• Service: The chefs of both teams had to come up with signature dishes to add to the Hell's Kitchen menu. Ramsay also left it up to the teams to decide who would be on each station. Each team has difficulty in deciding on food with Susan wanting the menu to be simple and Nona wanting all of her ideas to be on the menu. On the current contestants team, Susan is made to float, Cyndi gives herself meat, Jon on fish, Mary on garnish and Ja'Nel on hot appetizers. Susan puts up an argument but does resign to be a floater and help the other chefs. The returning team has little issue preparing their dishes while the current chefs are having issue with their duck confit and have to serve their dish without the confit. Steak tartar with a sunny-side up qual egg is given as an app, however the duck entree is missing the confit and isn't cooked properly. On presenting again however, Ramsay approves the dish. The returning chefs present a rendered duck breast with toasted pistachios and veal lamb chop with collared greens and ham-hock for their entree. The service starts strong with Mary cooking perfect scallops although it is actually Jon's station. Nona starts off forgetting Ramsay's recipe for risotto and doesn't start by making enough risotto. Rock starts off being very confused and unsure of what to do as the other chefs are bringing dishes up. Susan shows issues with appetizers and not being fast enough on the appetizers she helps Ja'Nel with but finishes appetizers. Christina and Paul start the entrees with perfect halibut and lamb however Paul faults with raw lamb on their second time around at the pass and then gives rare lamb. Cyndi has issues with timing on the lamb and although the red team almost finishes first, a returned lamb stalls finishing the service before the returning winners. The returning team finish their service first followed shortly by the final five. The winner is decided by comment cards filled out by the diners and the returning winners receive a score of 95 points, while the final five only receives a 93 per cent losing the service but still giving an impressive score.
• Nominees for Elimination: Susan is nominated for her issues on appetizers and Cyndi for putting out raw meat. Cyndi tries to put Ja'Nel on the block saying Susan ran the appetizers station. In the end Susan is put up alongside Cyndi. Then Cyndi suggests Mary as the weakest saying Ramsay isn't looking for the most improved, he's looking for the best. Susan also suggests Mary for nomination.
• Non-Elimination: Chef Ramsay decides not to eliminate either of the nominated chefs saying because the five almost matched the five returning winners, no one deserves to go home. However, he does warn that next time one, two or even three could go home.

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Episode	First air date	Rating (18–49)	Share (18–49)	Viewers (millions)	Nightly rank	Weekly rank
1	March 12, 2013	2.1	7	5.30	4
2	March 12, 2013	2.3	3	5.78	3
3	March 19, 2013	2.0	6	4.59	3
4	March 26, 2013	2.0	6	4.68	4
5	April 2, 2013	2.0	6	4.91	4
6	April 9, 2013	1.9	6	4.53	4
7	April 16, 2013	2.1	7	4.77	4
8	April 23, 2013	2.0	6	4.83	4
9	April 30, 2013	2.0	7	4.79	3
10	May 7, 2013	1.9	6	4.71	3
11	May 13, 2013	1.8	5	4.19	4
12	May 13, 2013	1.8	5	3.89	4
13	May 23, 2013	2.2	8	5.62	2
14	May 30, 2013	2.1	8	5.22	2
15	June 6, 2013	2.2	7	5.28	2
16	June 13, 2013	2.0	7	5.14	2

External links

• Official website