Hell's Kitchen (American season 17)

Ramsay calls up 16 chefs from previous seasons and invites them back to compete again in Hell's Kitchen. When they arrive, they recall the friendships and rivalries they formed throughout their previous appearances. While some were happy to reunite with their old teammates, others were not such as Robyn and Dana towards Barbie, Nick towards Josh, and especially Jennifer towards Elise. After pleasantries, Ramsay introduces the chefs and Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky to a live audience. Ramsay then reveals that the winner of this season will be the head chef of the new Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas.

Team challenge/signature dish: Unlike previous seasons, Ramsay gives the chefs each different ingredients which they will use to create new signature dishes in 45 minutes, and go head to head on main proteins. Each dish will be scored on a 1 to 5 scale. Ashley and Jared each scored 4 on duck, while on the chicken dishes, Barbie beat Ben 3 to 2. Both Giovanni and Jennifer score 3 on lamb while on the scallop dishes, Michelle scored 4 over Nick's 3. On the pork chop dishes, Milly beat Manda 4 to 3. On the filet dishes, Dana beat Josh 4 to 2, but both Van and Elise scored a perfect 5 on lobster. Finally, on the salmon dishes, Benjamin also scores a perfect 5, while Robyn scores a measly 1. The men triumph 28–27.

Rewards/punishment: The men went to Downtown Los Angeles to slide down the Skyslide at the U.S. Bank Tower and to celebrate their win with Marino. Afterwards, they had dinner with Ramsay at WP24 where they had their food cooked and served by Wolfgang Puck. The women, meanwhile, were forced to clean up the risers and confetti outside. While the women were angry at Robyn for costing them the challenge and puzzled at her demonstration of a fortune-telling rock (Elise even suggested that the rock could have told Robyn when to cook the salmon), they were even more annoyed at Elise for not helping out with the risers outside of Hell's Kitchen.

Challenge – part 2: Continuing from the last episode, Chef Ramsay announces this year Hell's Kitchen will offer a special bar menu. The chefs were tasked to create a bar menu item. Whoever has the best dish will have it featured on the menu throughout the whole season, and they are also safe from tonight's elimination. The time limit is 40 minutes. The sous chefs will sample each dish and then select four from each team, from which Ramsay will pick the top four, which turned out to be Michelle, Milly, Elise, and Van. Milly's hand-cut French fries topped with a lobster cheese sauce won him immunity for tonight's service. Michelle, who came second, later expressed disappointment at this, as she felt her dish had been more adventurous whereas Milly's had been something he had made numerous times before.

After the challenge, Ben starts to feel unwell, and admits to his teammates that he was recently diagnosed with diabetes. With 30 minutes to dinner service, Ben goes to see the medic, who takes his vitals as he continues to worry about his diabetes and at this point needs to decide if he is going to take the chance or if he is "out". Ultimately, he decides to stay.

Service: A Hell's Kitchen first featured chef's table on opening night with Jordin Sparks in the red kitchen and Joe Mantegna in the blue kitchen. French Stewart, Keith Sweat and Kirstin Maldonado also attended as guests. Dana and Milly served tableside shrimp and pasta. For the men, Josh served perfect cold appetizers but took too long on them, irritating Ramsay. Jared and Ben served up a raw salmon. Ben took the blame for the blunder and suddenly became unbalanced, forcing Jared to catch him before he fell. They then serve an acceptable salmon. After that, however, the men had an almost perfect service, thanks to Nick and Giovanni serving perfect meat. For the women, Ashley served a soupy carbonara, but quickly served another one. Despite Robyn's strong performance on meat, Elise undercooked and then overcooked New York Strip, causing Chef Ramsay to send the women to the dining room to apologize.[5] When the women return, Chef Ramsay calls over Giovanni to help Elise with the meat. With Giovanni's help, the women's entrees finally reach the dining room. However, Manda serves up raw salmon for the chef's tables, then burns the skin on the refire, leading to Ramsay kicking the women out of the kitchen with the men finishing opening night on a strong note.

Elimination: Manda was quickly agreed on as the women's first nominee, and despite Elise and Barbie attempting to nominate Robyn for not doing enough to help Elise on the meat station, Elise herself was named as the second nominee. Ramsay polls the rest of the women who they would send home. Robyn and Dana vote against Elise, while the rest vote against Manda. To the shock of everyone, Ramsay eliminated Ben, as he felt his health problems would hinder his ability to effectively continue. This makes Ben the eighth chef to be eliminated despite being on the winning team.

Ramsay's comment: "Big Ben? More like big liability. He clearly wasn't going to be able to keep up, so I had to let him down."

After elimination – continued: Robyn and Elise have a heated argument over service which is only stopped when Manda drags Robyn to the other room. Prior to the next challenge, Josh threw up after eating vitamins and chimichanga for breakfast.

Team challenge: Before the next challenge begins, Ramsay demonstrated how effective a chef's hands are by having a kid over to play speed stacking. Michelle and Jared then competed in a cup stacking competition, with Michelle easily winning in just 18 seconds, and Jared taking over a minute longer. The women gained a 30-second head start for the real challenge: to recreate a seafood tower with four tiers as the chefs worked in pairs to replicate parts of the tower to Ramsay's approval. Benjamin had to go twice due to the men being short a member. Despite the disadvantage, the men won the challenge by a matter of seconds, with the women losing their advantage after Michelle and Elise had major problems putting together the second part of the tower.

Rewards/punishment: The men were sent to Ocean Club in Malibu where they ate a seafood lunch with Jocky and Marino. They later played soccer with U.S. soccer Olympians Alyssa Naeher and Julie Ertz. The women in the meantime were forced to take in deliveries of seafood, prep it for service, and forced to eat a disgusting fish dish, causing Barbie to vomit over Dana and Robyn's graphic descriptions of the dish. Elise tries to weasel out of the dish, but Sous-Chef Christina forces her to eat it. As they were unloading the deliveries, Barbie annoyed her teammates by telling them what to do.

Service: Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, professional golfer Jon Rahm, and the aforementioned Alyssa Naeher and Julie Johnston were guests in the dining room. Michelle and Giovanni served a seafood appetizer tableside. The men continued their winning streak with a near perfect service thanks to Milly's leadership with the only problems being Josh briefly getting confused on orders until Jared helped him out, and Van momentarily delaying a ticket by not having the salmon quite ready in time. While the women had a good start on appetizers, they soon fell apart on entrees. Despite Barbie cooking perfect meat, she openly argued with and criticized Robyn, who sent up raw salmon. Ashley was kicked out of the kitchen temporarily for being distracted by her watch, and Manda again struggled on garnishes. After Robyn served an overcooked piece of salmon and Barbie ruined three pieces of meat, Ramsey gave them one more chance. However, when Ashley overcooks a lobster wellington and Robyn brings up raw halibut, an angry Ramsay threw the women out for the second time in a row and had the men finish service.

Elimination: Ramsay called the women's performance even worse than the previous one, and ordered them to nominate two people. Barbie and Robyn were agreed on as the nominees, but when Ramsay asked Barbie who the nominees were, she stated that the team also considered Ashley and Manda due both of them struggling on their stations. Ramsay agreed and brought up the four women, ultimately eliminating Ashley for not doing much in service and believing she had no fight back left.

Team challenge: Ramsay brought everyone together for a game of chance. Both teams took turns naming ingredients that started with a given letter, until one team could not think of any and lost the round. The team that won each round got to keep one of the named ingredients for themselves as well as assign one to their opponents. Each team member had to cook an individual dish using all of the ingredients on their team's list. The women chose mushrooms, snap peas, asparagus and rice and were given cantaloupe, peanut butter and blueberries, while the men won cauliflower, portabella mushrooms and bacon and were given maraschino cherries, syrup, artichoke and raisins. Barbie scored 4 (although she was unable to taste her own sauce as she was allergic to peanuts), Manda scored 2, Dana scored a perfect 5 but Robyn again scored a 1. Elise and Michelle also scored 5 while Jennifer scored 4. Milly scored 4, Van scored 3, Benjamin scored 5 and Jared scored 1. Nick scored 5, Josh scored 3 and Giovanni scored 4, giving the women their first challenge victory, 26-25.

Rewards/punishment: The women flew in a private plane to Santa Barbara to stay at the Belmond El Encanto resort. The men dealt with a delivery of potatoes and then sifted through garbage to find what was recyclable. During the punishment, the men became infuriated with Josh after he revealed he was a celebrity caterer who only worked three hours a day.

Service: Shannon Tweed dined in the red kitchen and Paige VanZant in the blue. Both kitchens had to prepare for a twelve-top table for a guest celebrating his 30th birthday. Ramsay had both kitchens coordinate their dishes in sync with one another for the appetizers and the entrees. Throughout the service, the red team had an almost flawless performance, as Michelle and Jennifer both managed to properly coordinate the kitchens so the twelve-top could be served. Their only real problems came with Michelle adding too much garlic to a risotto and Barbie serving cold mashed potatoes and accidentally grabbing Ramsay's cooking cloth, though even then, both quickly recovered. The blue team's service was much more rocky; Josh slowed the team on appetizers and then twice sent up far too many orders of risotto, with Ramsay making him eat the leftovers with the VIP guests. He was also berated for using a stopwatch to calculate the risottos' cooking times. Giovanni sent up a burnt order of pork alongside a properly cooked one, and Benjamin and Jared sent up a raw order of duck for the twelve-top table, forcing Jennifer to step in and rescue the table. When Benjamin sent up a cold beef wellington, Ramsay threw the blue team out, having the red team finish their service and asking them to come up with two nominees.

Team challenge: Bringing everybody outside, Ramsay explains that some chefs use wood planks to cook fish on, which will be their next challenge. Both teams will have three pairs of two and one lone chef cook their fish and produce over a fire pit on top of cedar wood or hickory wood. Ramsay is then joined by Chef Ben Ford (Harrison Ford's son) in the judging. During the challenge, Josh earned his new teammates' ire by smothering the fire with cold coals. Robyn and Nick beat Michelle and Jennifer on cod, but both teams score on wahoo and barramundi, with Van earning praise for preparing a Nicoise salad with eggs boiled in the fire pit. After Elise beats Milly and Giovanni on salmon, both teams finish tied at 3–3. Ramsay and Ford deem Robyn and Nick's dish the best of the day, giving the blue team the win.

Rewards/punishment: The blue team heads down to Apex Farm and enjoys a horseback ride. The red team also go to Apex Farm, but are forced to clean horse manure in a pen. Manda and Josh argued throughout the punishment as she was frustrated with his condescending attitude, while the rest of the team felt that he cost them the challenge by putting out the fire.

Service: Actor Shaun Brown was in attendance for this service. A tableside appetizer of smoked salmon rillette is served by Van and Barbie. In the blue kitchen, Benjamin uses oil on a non-stick pan for scallops but recovers, though he irritates his teammates by constantly responding "Oui chef" to Ramsay. Ironically, Ramsay didn't seem to mind. Robyn accidentally drops an order of chicken and serves a raw beef Wellington, and Milly has trouble communicating with Nick on garnish. Otherwise, the blue team had a decent service. On the red team, Josh was slow on the fish and chips for the bar menu, leading Manda to repeatedly take over his station. After Josh serves salty spinach and liquid mashed potatoes, he gets kicked out for handling cold garnishes with his bare hands when the protein it goes with is already at the pass. The red team performs much better after this, though Elise earned some of the other chefs' ire by standing around and doing nothing.

Automatic elimination: After a while, Josh decides to come back to the kitchen and fight his way back in. Ramsay, however, takes him into the back room and eliminates him from Hell's Kitchen due to his poor performances, stubbornness, and failure to improve upon his past mistakes, although he acknowledges Josh's big heart and talent. Josh takes his jacket off and leaves through the front door, making him the eighth person to be eliminated during service, the second after switching teams (after Lacey in Season 5), and the second who was asked to use the front door (after Gabriel in Season 12). Ramsay doesn't give an explanation for Josh's elimination, and his jacket is not hung up, nor is his picture burned.

After Josh's elimination and the post-service meeting, Chef Ramsay told the chefs to all get some rest, as big changes were coming. Everyone was relieved that Josh was gone, with Milly specifically stating that every remaining contestant hated Josh and that he was, skill wise, not at any of their levels. They all sat around drinking and talking about each other's sex lives, making fun of who they thought was "vanilla," and who might be a freak in the bed. Suddenly, Van fell into the hot tub.

Team challenge: The challenge was to create and bake a pizza at the DeSano Pizzeria and Bakery. Some chefs from each team were allowed to pick a chef from the other team to cook against; this person would spin a wheel to pick the country from which the pizza would be inspired, as judged by Ramsay, Marino, and Chef Steve Samson. Giovanni was the only chef not picked, so he chose France, which was spun by Michelle and Benjamin. Barbie beat Robyn on India, with all three judges voting in her favor. Milly beat Jennifer on Morocco, with Ramsay and Marino voting in favor of him, but Samson voting in favor of Jennifer. Manda beat Van on Vietnam, with all three judges voting in her favor. Nick beat Dana on Greece, with all three judges voting in his favor. Neither Elise nor Jared managed to score a point on South Korea, as Elise's pizza was badly misshapen and Jared had served raw cabbage, thinking it was kimchi. This left the teams tied at 2 with one pizza left to judge. Michelle scored winning point for the red team by beating Giovanni on France, after the judges noticed Giovanni's pizza was burnt on the bottom, which the blue team was unaware of when they chose to drop Benjamin's pizza in favor of Giovanni's.

Rewards/punishment: The red team headed to The Magic Castle after a tour of Hollywood on a double-decker bus where they were entertained by Joel Ward. The blue team was forced to prepare the entire dining room for the upcoming Italian Night in Hell's Kitchen.

Service: Chef's tables were featured for Italian night as actress Melissa Fumero sat in the red kitchen while the blue team had a pair of VIP guests in their respective kitchen which includes 2012 Miss Universe Olivia Culpo and Victoria's Secret model Devon Windsor. A tableside Italian seafood entrée was served by Nick and Elise. In the blue kitchen, Benjamin caused confusion by not informing Robyn when to drop scallops for their first appetizer. When the entrées rolled around, the entire team was forced into the pantry when Van and Giovanni sent up raw lamb. Worse still, after returning to the kitchen, Van and Giovanni took too long in delivering the lamb, and when Van laughed at Ramsay's admonishment of Giovanni, Ramsay forced him back into the pantry to deride him some more. Jared got overwhelmed by how many different garnishes he had to cook at once and misinformed his team when they would be ready. After arguing with Robyn over his inconsistent timings, Jared called for a medic, claiming he had a cut on his finger, but Ramsay couldn't find one. After Robyn overcooked two orders of salmon, and Giovanni overcooked two orders of veal, Ramsay chastised the blue team for not performing as strongly as they had on opening night, called the medic over to confirm that Jared didn't cut himself, and kicked them out of the kitchen. Conversely, on the red team, Manda was on appetizers, but due to having Celiac Disease, could not taste the pasta dishes for doneness and would need Michelle's help. Michelle mistakenly told her that it was cooked, but Ramsay said it was undercooked and sent it back. Michelle nearly misinformed Manda a second time, but thanks to Elise taking over tasting duty, Manda was able to deliver a perfectly-cooked pasta. Michelle had a strong performance on the meat station but suffered a fall while trying to cook an order of lamb for one of the team's entrées, which Manda considered to be karma for her pasta error, but she still managed to cook it properly. Elise also annoyed her teammates by trying to offer unwanted help on their stations. Besides these mishaps, the red team had a strong, solid service and were given the victory.

Elimination: After a long, heated debate back in the dorms that put Van, Giovanni, Jared, and Robyn in the crosshairs, the blue team nominated Jared for his "medical emergency" that disrupted the garnish station, and Robyn for her errors with the scallops and the salmon. Jared continued to insist that he truly had cut himself, while Robyn went as far as to plead with Ramsay to send her back to the red team since it had become clear that she was just not bonding with the blue team. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Jared for faking the injury and worsening performances after a strong start, stating he never found his stride. Jared exited while continuing to insist that his cut had been real, despite contradictory testimony from the medic.

Challenge: For their next challenge, both teams are to cook six of the most popular dishes in Hell's Kitchen (Beef Wellington, Salmon, Halibut, Rack of Lamb, Duck Breast, and Double Bone Pork Chop) in 25 minutes. However, every 3 minutes, each team must kick out one team member, which ultimately leaves Nick and Michelle the only ones left in their respective kitchens until everyone is called back in during the last 3 minutes. In the end, the blue team won 5–3 because the red team served raw lamb and pork.

Rewards/punishment: The blue team went to a world class rock climbing gym and ate at the Bourbon Steak at Americana and are joined by Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky. The red team had to work with Marino in cleaning the dining room and kitchen along with polishing Marino's shoes and prepping for next service.

Cook For Your Life Challenge: Instead of a service, Ramsay announced the a Cook For Your Life Challenge. Since Michelle and Nick were the last to remain in their respective kitchens, they had the privilege to nominate the three weakest chefs on their respective teams to participate. Michelle nominated Barbie, Elise, and Manda, while Nick nominated Giovanni, Milly, and Robyn. The six chefs were tasked with recreating Ramsay's Champagne and Oysters in 30 minutes.

Elimination: Before the judging, Elise broke down in tears, feeling as though she didn't deserve to be put up for the challenge. Milly was sent to safety first (despite preparing only five oysters instead of six as required), followed by Manda, Barbie, and Elise, leaving Giovanni and Robyn as the last two. After getting back to the dorms, Elise got into a heated confrontation with Michelle for nominating her for the challenge. Robyn was sent up to safety last despite puncturing two of her oysters, leaving Giovanni to be eliminated for putting too much pasta and not enough sauce on each oyster, though Ramsay wished him and his family luck.

Team challenge: For their next challenge, Ramsay announced that both teams would be cooking with three of the earliest meat hunted by man; boar, venison, and elk. Both teams had 3 minutes to hunt 5 ingredients for each of their protein and had 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Both teams had two pairs cooking with a similar meat, minus Nick who is the lone blue chef to cook with venison. Ramsay brought in chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (who previously helped judge a challenge in Seasons 13 and 14) to help him with the judging. Van scored a point on his boar dish while Elise scored a point on her venison making it a 1–1 tie. In a big surprise, Robyn's elk dish broke the tie in favor of the blue team and they won the challenge 2–1. Ramsay even welcomed Robyn back after a string of poor performances.

Reward/punishment: The blue team went on an exclusive mountain retreat at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, while indulging in caviar provided by Chef Alex Ageneau. The red team had to clean out the dorm rooms and had to clean the waiting staff's aprons. During punishment, Michelle tried to apologize to Elise for putting her up in the Cook For Your Life Challenge, but Elise rudely rejected her apology.

Service: A caviar bellini appetizer special was included on the main menu. Later that night, Ramsay received a last-minute VIP booking from Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik, who sat at the red kitchen's chef table. The blue team had a perfect service with all five of them communicating well and none of their dishes were cooked incorrectly. Ramsay praised this, only needing to lecture Robyn for calling her teammates "baby". For the red team, it was the opposite story. Elise was slow on the caviar appetizer and needed Jennifer's help in the preparation. Things soon fell apart on the entrees, as the kitchen came to a halt when Manda didn't hear an order of pork for one table, and Barbie served raw duck. Barbie later sent up a raw chicken that Michelle thought was cooked. After Barbie and Manda again served raw duck and raw pork, Ramsay declared this the red team's worst service yet and asked for two nominees for elimination before kicking them out, with the blue team finishing their remaining tickets.

Elimination: After a long discussion, the Red team nominated Manda and Barbie, although Elise suggested that Michelle should have been put up. Despite Barbie's horrendous performance on the meat station, Ramsay pinpointed Manda's forgotten order as the main reason for the red team's defeat and eliminated her, but praised her for her hard work and determination.

Challenge: The remaining chefs participated in a fishing challenge where the chefs had to waddle through a lake. They must hook lures containing different ingredients to their fish's mouth and then throw it to their teammates. Each ingredient they fish out will go a certain fish – Dover sole, red snapper, grouper, arctic char, or cod. Afterwards, they had 30 minutes to cook their fish with the ingredients they fished out from the lake. Michael Cimarusti served as a guest judge. Jennifer scored over Nick on cod, while Robyn scored over Michelle with the grouper. Milly scored over Elise (who only fished three ingredients) on red snapper, while Benjamin and Dana both scored a point with their arctic char. Finally, Van scored over Barbie on the Dover sole, giving the blue team a 4–2 victory.

Reward/punishment: The blue team headed out to Las Vegas in a private plane to stay overnight at Caesars Palace. They also went on the world's tallest Ferris Wheel with Christina. The red team had to bring in several hundreds of pounds of fish, then descale and fillet them. In addition, they were served a disgusting protein shake. Barbie tried to throw away her entire shake, only to get caught. As a result, Jocky forces the rest of the team to finish their serving of shake. This caused Dana, Elise, and Michelle to vomit.

Service: This service included an Asian fusion menu. Guests in attendance included Aleks Paunovic and E–40 in addition to the chef's tables, which hosted Cheryl Burke and Dan Bucatinsky in the red and blue kitchen respectively. Barbie and Robyn each spent excessive amounts of time fraternizing with the chef's table guests, earning the ire of Elise and Nick respectively. Despite sous chef Christina advising Barbie to lead, Elise and Barbie fought for control of the kitchen all night. Raw chicken sent to the pass prompted Ramsay to send the entire red team into the pantry. Later, Cheryl informed Barbie that the duck was slightly raw and Barbie offered to prepare another, but the guests declined. Despite Elise's objections, Barbie insisted on a fresh serving of duck. When Barbie asked Elise to prepare a duck garnish, Elise refused, an argument ensued, and Ramsay pulled both back into the pantry and demanded they sort out their differences before reentering. This prompted Elise to call Barbie "cuckoo" before exiting the pantry. In the blue kitchen, Milly brought up raw New York strip but recovered. Van failed to respond when Ramsay asked for time on the salmon, and proceeded to bring up an overcooked portion. He was also able to bounce back, but not before Ramsay threatened to throw him out. Even though both teams completed service with no ejections, Ramsay declared both teams losers and asked for two nominees per team for elimination.

Elimination: The blue team considered nominating Van for his struggles on fish and Milly for raw steak, but are interrupted by the red team arguing from across the hall. The blue team nominated Robyn and Milly, but Ramsay did not even ask for the red team's nominees before calling down Van as well and gave all three 30 seconds to plead their cases. After this, Ramsay sent Robyn and Milly back in line, and much to the disbelief of the other chefs, eliminated Van for his lack of communication on the fish station, but encouraged him to keep his head up. The red team nominated Elise and Barbie, but after hearing their pleas, Ramsay simply sent them both back in line and warned the remaining chefs to correct their mistakes, or else.

Challenge: Ramsay announced that the annual Blind Taste Test was the next challenge, and for this season, they would be tasting herbs and spices mixed into a mashed potato puree. While one chef tastes the ingredients, a member of their team would be in a chair and would get splattered with mashed potatoes for two incorrect guesses, gravy for three, and both punishments for four. Robyn scored 3 while Dana failed to score any points, resulting in Michelle getting messy. This was a complete reversal from Season 10 when Dana got 2 and laughed at Robyn who didn't get any. Nick scored 2 while Jennifer also failed to score any points (resulting in Dana getting messy), and Benjamin scores 3 while Barbie scores 2, with Benjamin redeeming himself after scoring only 1 in Season 7. Elise and Milly were supposed to be the second to last pair to go, but Ramsay warned the red team that if Elise did not catch up to the blue team, the challenge was over. After Elise failed to score on her three attempts (ironically, she scored 3 out of 4 on season 9), the blue team won the challenge 8–2 before the last round, so Michelle did not taste. This is first time since Season 15 that the Blind Taste Test did not have to go to the final ingredient and the first one ever that was won before the final round. This contrasts with recent seasons 13, 14 and 16 that all needed to go to sudden death. Ramsay complimented the blue team as none of their members had gravy dumped on them.

Reward/punishment: The blue team went to Roy Yamaguchi's Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant for lunch and received Vitamix Blenders while at the restaurant. The red team had to clean up the dining room and separate peppercorn while grinding them by hand. During punishment, Sous Chef Christina noticed some animosity in the red team and asked them if they could promise a good dinner service, but Dana refused to do so as she did not have faith in Barbie.

Service: For one night only, Hell's Kitchen hosted a private dinner service for two charities with the blue team cooking for Shane's Inspiration, and the red team cooking for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Both charities featured notable guests in attendance which include Mindy Sterling and Tyler Posey in the red table, and David Koechner, Jill Wagner and Shane's Inspiration founder Scott Williams in the blue table. Each team would have one chef lead a section, though Nick had to lead both the scallop appetizer and the passion fruit souffle dessert for the blue team, which had one fewer member. Michelle and Nick were able to get their dishes out with few problems, with Michelle noticing that she was missing three scallops and Milly overcooking some scallops for Nick's dishes as well as Robyn prematurely starting her course before they had sent out the scallop course. Both Robyn and Jennifer led well on lobster pasta with the only problem being Robyn plating more spaghetti than needed. On the striped bass dish, Milly led the blue team vocally and got his dishes out with no problems, but in the red kitchen, most of the bass were burnt and Elise accused her team of sabotaging her, despite her not checking them before serving them. The beef filet Rossini was the same story, as Benjamin led his team well while Barbie screamed aggressively at Michelle over a side of spinach and all the potatoes were burnt, greatly dismaying Ramsay. Dana and Nick had no issues with their desserts, but Ramsay called the red team's performance the "worst charity dinner ever in the entire competition" before tasking them to come up with two nominees.

Elimination: Barbie and Elise were nominated. Ramsay eliminated Barbie for her aggressive leadership at service along with not bouncing back quicker, but praised her for her heart. He then remarked that the blue team's remaining four members would likely make up for the final four.

Before the challenge began, Jennifer made a pact with her Season 9 archrival Elise to knock out Dana and Michelle, whom they believed weaker and to be in their own clique.

Challenge: Before heading off to bed, Ramsay announced a pasta challenge tomorrow where the chefs had to create three portions a gourmet pasta dish with a $20 budget at a local grocery store. Joining Ramsay in the judging is Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Chef and Co-Owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, CO and Bruce Kalman, Chef and Owner of Union in Pasadena, CA. Each judge gave points based on how much they would pay for the dish. Michelle and Elise earned Ramsay's suspicion when they announced they were making a dumpling soup and paella, respectively, as Ramsay was expecting Italian dishes for this challenge. Despite this, the red team won the challenge $320 to $313, as Michelle and Elise's outside-the-box dishes hit big and Milly's chicken meatball pasta did not. It was the first time they won a challenge since Episode 6.

Reward/punishment: The red team went go-karting and had an incredible lunch. In addition, Michelle's Asian inspired Tortellini Soup was put on the menu for being the highest scoring dish of the day.

Service: Tyler Hilton, Sebastian Roche, and Keesha Sharp were in attendance for this service. Both teams got off to strong starts on appetizers, but had struggles on entrees with their respective meat stations. In the red kitchen, Dana severely burned her initial wellingtons and sent up raw lamb to the pass. In the blue kitchen, Robyn sent up one wellington when two were on order, incorrectly repeated a different ticket, and had trouble communicating with Benjamin on the garnish station, earning a trip to the storeroom with Ramsay. Despite that, both teams pushed entrees out, and with three tickets left each, Ramsay announced that the first team to finish up was the winner. On the last ticket, Dana overcooked and undercooked wellingtons, and Ramsay threw the red team out for the fourth time this season as the blue team finished their own tickets.

Elimination: Despite being told to nominate two people, the red team had a three way tie between Dana, Michelle and Elise due to Jennifer and Elise ganging up against Michelle. Ramsay called all three of them down, but sent Michelle and Elise back in line, eliminating Dana for her lack of leadership and poor performance on meat. As Dana was the only returning chef who had never been nominated, she was eliminated the first time she was on the chopping block.

Ramsay announced that today was a black jackets challenge where only five of the seven chefs would get black jackets, while two of them would be sent home.

Black Jacket Challenge 1: The first challenge was Taste It Now Make It. Ramsay gave the chefs 45 minutes to taste his dish and recreate it. Everyone got the protein correct: sea bass. Milly was the only one to get the white asparagus and romanesco purees correct, and Nick and Benjamin each matched four out of five ingredients in the hash (celery root, fava beans, apples, chives, only missing sweet potato). Ramsay gave the edge to Nick because Benjamin's bass was slightly burnt. They won the first black jackets and received passes to the Black Jacket Lounge.

Black Jacket Challenge 2: The second challenge was the adaptability challenge. Ramsay gave the chefs 30 minutes and 5 domes of ingredients. When the bell is rung at various intervals, the chefs had to race to grab an ingredient from the dome, which they would be required to use in their dish. Jennifer and Elise underwhelmed with their undercooked potatoes and leaving the digestive tract on a lobster, respectively. Michelle's veal chops and Benjamin's filet mignon were the best two dishes, and they received their black jackets and passes to the lounge. Before their final challenge, Jennifer urged Robyn to beat Elise.

Black Jacket Challenge 3: Ramsay gave Elise, Jennifer, and Robyn 30 minutes to cook whatever they wanted with a full range of ingredients in the kitchen. The black jacket chefs watched the challenge on a live video feed, but it cut out after the challenge ended. Robyn made a seared lamb loin with potato and corn hash (despite having initially selected halibut for her primary protein), Elise made a filet mignon with potato puree and rainbow chard, and Jennifer made scallops and shrimp with corn succotash.

Elimination: After tasting the dishes, Ramsay first eliminated Elise for her undercooked steak and gummy mashed potatoes, but urged her to keep her head up high. To decide between Jennifer and Robyn, Ramsay had Jocky and Christina taste the dishes. In the end, Robyn received the final black jacket and Jennifer was sent home due to her scallops being slightly undercooked. Before leaving, Ramsay praised Jennifer for her improvement since Season 9.

After Robyn entered the Black Jacket Lounge, Ramsay and the sous chefs brought champagne to the lounge and congratulated the remaining chefs for being in the final five.

Challenge: For their first black jackets challenge, the chefs had to teach sports all stars (Milly cooking with NFL's Ricky Williams, Michelle cooking with WNBA champion Candace Parker, Benjamin cooking with NFL "Light's Out" Shawne Merriman, Nick cooking with Olympic gold medalist gymnast Jordyn Wieber, and Robyn cooking with 5-time NBA All-Star Reggie Miller) how to cook their signature dishes that they originally planned on making at the start of the season in 45 minutes. Once finished, Ramsay will then judge the dishes, King of the Hill style. Michelle won the challenge by beating Milly, who had beaten Robyn and Nick, and then beating Benjamin.

Reward/punishment: Michelle went on a helicopter tour over Los Angeles with lunch 71 Above, and took Nick with her. The remaining chefs had to participate in deep cleaning day. During punishment, Robyn got annoyed with Milly for eating the leftover food from the challenge instead of working.

Service: Rapper and Musician Wyclef Jean was seated at the chefs table. Former 2 Broke Girls actors Jonathan Kite and Matthew Moy were in attendance in addition to Janina Gavankar. Milly had a messy work station on the appetizer section and failed to notice a pan catching on fire until Ramsay pointed it out. He also struggled to make hot appetizers and cold appetizers at the same time, requiring Nick and Robyn's help, but managed to recover. Benjamin was not communicating with everyone else from the meat station, and annoyed everyone with his constant "Oui Chef" reply. Michelle performed well on the fish station, only having trouble when she was slow to bring up the sauce for a halibut. Nick served a raw New York strip but managed to quickly recover. Robyn sent up bland couscous and had trouble keeping up on garnish. She also earned the entire team a trip to the pantry after burning Brussels sprouts and irritated Ramsay by arguing that she didn't mean to send them up. Despite the speed bumps, the team sent out the rest of their tickets out with no problems, and Ramsay was relatively pleased by it. After service, Ramsay named Michelle the "Best of the Best" as she was the only one not to commit any major errors and told her to nominate two people.

Elimination: Michelle nominated Robyn and Milly. During the elimination process, Robyn argued with Milly over how little work she felt he did during punishment and service. Ramsay eliminated Robyn for being the weakest of the black jackets but praised her for improving a lot after her poor start and allowed her to keep her jacket.

While the chefs are leaving, Ramsay calls Milly over and tells him he is talented and that the fighting and conflict is not necessary. Milly acknowledges this in an interview and apologizes. Before the next challenge, Ramsay revealed that he invited the final four's loved ones (Michelle's sister and nephews, Nick's husband and mom, Benjamin's wife and daughters, and Milly's girlfriend and infant son) for some time together.

Challenge: Ramsay had the chefs choose a Christmas present under a tree that contained ingredients for them. They then had forty-five minutes to use those ingredients to make a festive inspired dish. Afterwards, Ramsay invited their loved ones for a blind judging, where each person would vote for their top two dishes. Benjamin and Michelle each received three votes, while Nick received two and Milly none. Ramsay broke the tie in favor of Benjamin.

Reward/punishment: Benjamin rode with Ramsay in a Ferrari to lunch with his family while Nick, Michelle, and Milly had to clean the SUV's and clean up the dining room. During punishment, they made a pact, as Season 14 representatives, to become the final three.

Service: For this service, each of the final four had a turn on the pass with Ramsay not only testing their leadership skills, but also their quality control, as Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky would make intentional mistakes. In attendance that night were Anna Konkle and Gabrielle Dennis. Benjamin was up first and managed to catch Christina serving a carbonara with spaghetti instead of fettuccine, but did not notice carrots instead of butternut squash in the risotto. Milly missed an intentional ticket mistake from Marino, but became vocal and caught Christina giving him shrimp instead of lobster as well as multiple mistakes from Michelle on mashed potatoes. Michelle sent back Milly's undercooked halibut and noticed Christina giving her the wrong garnish (it was supposed to be creamed spinach), but mistook ribeye for New York strip. Nick missed Jocky sending up a veal chop instead of a pork chop, but caught Christina sending creamed spinach instead of creamed leeks and Michelle sending duck sauce instead of lamb sauce, while Milly struggled to poach an egg. After service, Ramsay told them to think of one person they wanted to be with in the finals.

Elimination: At elimination, everyone else said that Nick was the one they wanted to compete against. Ramsay then eliminated Milly, but said he was happy to give him a second chance, praised his confidence and allowed him to keep his jacket. In an unprecedented step, Ramsay offered Milly an opportunity to come to London for a week and stage at his flagship three Michelin Star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Milly enthusiastically accepted and left. Afterwards, Ramsay picked Nick as the first finalist and praised him for growing more than any chef in this competition. Benjamin was the second finalist for his calm, collected leadership that night. However, in another unprecedented move, Ramsay selected Michelle as the third finalist of the season, marking the first time in Hell's Kitchen history where there would be three finalists.

Individual challenge: The finalists were each assigned a sous chef, who would help them prepare a menu in one hour consisting of a hot and cold appetizer, as well as a chicken, beef, and seafood entree. During this process, Nick overcooked the beurre blanc sauce for one of his dishes, but managed to recover with the help of Sous Chef Christina. After sampling all the dishes, Ramsay was unable to decide on a winner.

Reward: Michelle, Benjamin, and Nick were all transported to an awards ceremony for the fictitious Culinary Association of America, where Ramsay took the stage and announced that they would be cooking their menus again for the executive staff at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Continued from the previous episode, Michelle picked Elise, so Benjamin was left with Barbie.

Service: Before dinner service, while both teams prepped their menus, Elise continued to give Michelle attitude until Nick told her to shut up or go home. Lamorne Morris and the finalists' families were in attendance for the last dinner service of the season. In the red kitchen, Dana needed Michelle's help to assemble a cold appetizer, prompting Ramsay to give Michelle a pep talk in the storeroom. Marino returned two risottos from Morris' table after a minor complaint about the broth, but Elise recovered and successfully re-fired them, much to the actor's delight. Ramsay then scolded Nick for attempting to call nine entrees in a single sitting. Meanwhile in the blue kitchen, Barbie did well on hot apps for Benjamin, despite only having been on that station once during the season. But entrees were a different story. First, Jennifer sent up raw bass twice. Robyn sent up raw filets and burned the subsequent refire. Her third attempt on the same ticket was raw again, prompting Ramsay to accuse her of sabotaging Benjamin. When she finally brought up an acceptable filet, the lamb was raw. She then refired the lamb in the same pan that had been used to cook the filet, which was a cross-contamination hazard. An irate Ramsay dragged Robyn and Benjamin into the dining room, threw the former out of the kitchen, and berated the latter for his passive leadership. Robyn continued to fight with Benjamin to be allowed back in, and he finally relented on the last ticket.

Winner: As per Hell's Kitchen tradition, Michelle and Benjamin stood in front of two doors. Michelle's door opened, making her the 17th winner and first All-Star winner of Hell's Kitchen; Benjamin took his defeat graciously. Michelle gave a victory speech and hung her picture in the Hall of Fame. In the final credits scene, Nick stated he was proud of Michelle for winning, Elise cried openly over losing to Michelle and Van asked Marino for a 'real drink' as opposed to the standard champagne.