Hell's Kitchen (American season 8)

Sixteen chefs arrived at Hell's Kitchen and met James, the new maître d'. They were then taken to the LA Market restaurant in JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live to meet Chef Ramsay and were told that the competition winner would become the head chef there before Ramsay had them return to the kitchen to make their signature dishes.

Team challenge: The men competed against the women being judged by Ramsay. Emily's duck breast, Russell's grilled calamari steak, Vinny's poached halibut, Jillian's vegetable stuffed chicken, Boris' dish, and Sabrina's fish and salad all impressed Ramsay. Raj's seafood and vegetable pancake received positive feedback for taste, but Ramsay refused to score it a point as it looked nothing like an actual pancake and also because it was dripping oil when he tilted the plate. The remaining dishes were poorly received; Nona's fried chicken was too sweet and she undercooked her asparagus, Antonia's mardi gras gumbo made Ramsay physically ill and puke twice, and had Ramsay give some to everyone, Curtis' lemon pepper chicken was called "shit", Rob's pistachio-crusted rack of lamb was undercooked and poorly cut, Gail burnt the potatoes she used for her dish, Trev's dish was deemed an "embarrassment", Lisa's meat was dry, Ramsay asked Melissa if she was "off her tiny mind" when she presented her steak, and finally Louis' lobster lost out as Ramsay couldn't get the meat out of the shell. The score was tied 3–3, but as a tie-breaker Ramsay deemed Antonia's dish the worst, giving the men the win.

Reward/punishment: The men received massages while the women cleaned the kitchen.

Antonia's exit: Shortly before dinner service, Antonia suffered a migraine and collapsed. She was rushed to the hospital and would not return to the competition. Ramsay gave no comment on Antonia's departure. Her jacket and burnt photo could be seen twice when Ramsay hung up Rob's and Vinny's jackets.

Service: Michelle Branch was a guest for opening night in addition to Donald Schultz. Raj and Emily were assigned as servers, while Boris and Melissa were assigned a special pizza menu. In the red kitchen, Melissa served raw pizza, which Boris mimicked Ramsay criticizing her for. Ramsay overheard Boris, and pulled him into the red kitchen to touch the pizza, and sternly threatened him with automatic elimination should he do it again. Lisa worked slowly on fish and undercooked halibut and Sabrina served beef Wellingtons too early. In the blue kitchen, Raj struggled as a server and was eventually demoted to helping Boris with pizzas (although they had trouble working together as Raj refused to listen to Boris's instructions), and Trev overdressed salads twice. After two hours with no entrees and only a few appetizers, Ramsay shut down both kitchens and named no winner, making this the first time in Hell's Kitchen history that both teams lost the first service.

Elimination: Even though Antonia was removed from the game, Ramsay still said one chef will be eliminated. The men nominated Raj and Trev while the women nominated Lisa and Sabrina. Although he considered Sabrina for her selfish attitude, Ramsay sent her back in line followed by Trev and then he eliminated Lisa for her abysmal performance on fish and feeling she was in over her head.

Team challenge: The chefs worked in pairs to make five salmon cucumber avocado rolls and four pieces of tuna nigiri according to Ramsay and master sushi chef Masaharu Morimoto's specifications. Afterwards, the men chose Trev and Curtis to sit out to even the numbers. For the women, Nona and Jillian scored 8 while Emily and Sabrina scored 7, but Gail and Melissa scored nothing, giving them a grand total of 15. The pairs of Louis-Rob and Russell-Raj scored 4 each due to Rob and Raj forgetting to put wasabi on their tuna nigiri pieces, leaving Boris and Vinny to need 7 points to tie. They scored 8 to give the men a 16-15 win.

Reward/punishment: The men joined Ramsay in a trip to Cellar360 in San Francisco for wine tasting and got to keep their Morimoto knives. The women prepped sushi and ate squid.

Service: Since both teams made James' first night as maitre d' hard, Ramsay appointed Vinny and Jillian as assistant maître d’s. On the women's side, Nona had a strong performance on fish, but Emily struggled on meat and Melissa got orders mixed up on garnish, forcing Ramsay to switch her with Jillian. On the men's side, Vinny was slow taking orders and was caught by James telling a table not to order sides with their meals as Raj was manning the garnish station and he had no faith that Raj was going to get the sides ready in time. When confronted by Ramsay, Vinny explained that he told the table that while the sides were delicious, it would take a long time for them to be served. Ramsay then turned his anger to Raj and asked him if he told Vinny not to take side orders, to which Raj argued that he didn't and showed that he had the sides ready to go. This prompted Vinny to come clean about his doubts for Raj's performance, and a furious Ramsay kicked Vinny out of service as a result, telling him that he had no authority to decide what goes out of the kitchen. Things only got worse for the men, as Boris took over scallops from Trev and served them raw, Curtis sent up poorly sliced sushi rolls with no wasabi and Raj stacked the garnish station, which resulted in both of them being kicked out, and after Louis served two Caesar salads with an unequal amount of walnuts on both plates, a fed up Ramsay led the rest of the men to the back hallway and ejected them from service. In the dorms, the men (particularly Louis) became infuriated with Raj after he addressed them as "kids", with Boris calling Raj "a waste of life". In the end, the women finished service and were named clear winners, while the men had to nominate two people for elimination.

Elimination: For first time in elimination, a winning team is sitting down on two rows of chairs, instead of a table, which continues throughout the series. The blue team initially decided on Raj and Curtis as the nominees, but Curtis managed to convince the rest of the team (and without Boris' knowledge) to nominate Boris instead of himself. Therefore, the blue team chose Raj and Boris as their nominees, however, Ramsay also brought Vinny up at elimination, as Ramsay was deeply insulted and infuriated that he would recommend to the diners not to order sides. Fortunately for the trio, Ramsay spared them and sent Curtis home for his poor performance on sushi, which was the main reason for the blue team's collapse.

The chefs were woken up by paramedics, who gave them health exams.

Team challenge: The teams cooked breakfast for fifty paramedics; the team that finished first would win. The women had a nearly flawless performance with the only problem being Emily's burnt bacon. For the men, Rob forgot to put pineapple in fruit salads and Boris burnt an omelette. Due to Raj's serving unseasoned scrambled eggs and leaving and putting his head in the freezer to calm down after getting berated by Ramsay for talking back, the women finished before the men even served one table, so Ramsay had them help the men.

Reward/punishment: The women visited Santa Monica's Viceroy Hotel to attend trapeze school and had lunch with Ramsay. The men had to clean the kitchens and polish stemware. During the punishment, Trev, who initially tried to befriend and help Raj, noticed water marks on Raj's glasses and a loaf of bread only covered halfway in ceramic wrap. For this, he angrily called out Raj for his constant poor performances and for not contributing to helping the blue team. An argument ensued between the two, and Raj got in Trev's face and yelled at him to shut up after what Raj perceived to be an insult on his weight. Before things escalated, Boris and Russell pulled Raj into the back hallway and calmed him down. During prep the next day, the women were concerned about Sabrina's decision not to make a prep list.

Service: Trev and Sabrina served cocktails in the dining room. In the red kitchen, Emily's appetizers were returned for being too salty, but Jillian managed to keep appetizers leaving at a good pace. Nona performed well on garnish but was frustrated with Emily due to the latter telling Nona she could help her, only for Nona to find that she wasn't even cooking the garnish she needed. Additionally, Melissa overcooked Dover sole and Gail dozed off while one of her meat pans caught on fire. In the blue kitchen, although Vinny did well on appetizers, Raj once again performed poorly while working on the fish station; he first fired scallops too early and served a salmon in a disgusting stock that wasn't needed. While working on the refire, Raj initially said it was ready but then said he needed another minute, irritating Ramsay. When the refired salmon was sent up, Ramsay discovered it was raw and proceeded to smash it with his bare hand. Oblivious as to why the salmon was rejected, Raj attempted to ask Ramsay about it, but the latter rebuffed him and ordered Vinny to help Raj. Because of this, the blue team eventually managed to serve their first table. On the next ticket, Boris' wellingtons turned out to be raw when he sliced into them, and Ramsay forced the blue team to start the whole ticket again. Raj took this opportunity to eat the discarded fish further frustrating Ramsay and his teammates. On another ticket, Raj managed to serve an acceptable portion of Halibut, however Ramsay discovered he cooked three portions of Dover Sole that weren't on the ticket. To make matters worse, Raj informed him that there was no more Dover Sole left, despite there being three on order on the next ticket. Horrified by this revelation, Ramsay demanded Raj go out to the dining room and explain to the customers who ordered the Dover Sole what happened. Raj then protested this due to a dirty apron, but Ramsay and Scott aggressively forced him to do so. Despite all of his mistakes, the blue team were declared the winners of service as they scored a 54% approval rating from the diners, compared to the red team's 50%.

Elimination: Emily and Sabrina were nominated, the latter after Nona persuaded the other women that one of the nominations should be based on the pre-service prep work; Ramsay was confused by Sabrina's nomination, but accepted the nominees. To the blue team's relief, Ramsay spared the nominees again and eliminated Raj for his third horrendous performance in a row and saying he was out of his league. This made him the third contestant to be eliminated despite being on the winning team, following Carol (Season 5) and Salvatore (Season 7).

Team challenge: First, Ramsay asked everyone to refrain from smoking for 48 hours due to its negative effects on the palate. He then tasked each chef to create ravioli with their own pasta, filling and sauce. They then had to present the dishes from best to worst for judging by Ramsay. Prior to judging, Gail decided to change her rank as the worst as she didn't have confidence in her dish. Melissa scored over Vinny, as his ravioli had burst. Both Jillian and Rob scored, Russell scored over Nona, Emily scored over Louis (the latter's ravioli being the only one Ramsay didn't like with him spitting it out after tasiting it), and Boris scored over Sabrina, as her ravioli had burst, leaving the teams tied 3-3 with one round to go. Trev scored the winning point for the men after Gail's dish was deemed to be underseasoned.

Reward/punishment: The men took a helicopter trip to a coastal resort to play golf, and Vinny's ravioli was placed on the menu for Italian night. The women cleaned the kitchen and milked cows. During the reward, Trev expressed his frustration to his team about them deeming his ravioli the worst during the challenge, as they didn't even taste it, and vented to Gail after returning to the dorm. Prior to dinner service, the red team continues to grow frustrated with Sabrina for being stubborn and unfocused during prep.

Service: Jack Osbourne was in attendance for this service. The men did well on appetizers thanks to Russell, but Louis struggled throughout the night on the meat station by first serving under cooked salmon then forgetting one of two orders of pork while burning the first portion. This was only made worse as a result of the table being meant for a person who was planning to propose to his girlfriend that night. After that, Louis handled pork with his hands to show Sous Chef Scott that it was undercooked, and the latter berated him for not putting it on a tray and called him a slob. Rob sent out burnt pizza and Ramsay forced him to eat it, and Boris was kicked out of the kitchen after he was caught washing dishes instead of cooking, with Ramsey sending him to the back of the house with the other dish washers. After Louis served raw chicken parmesan for the proposal table, he and Boris got kicked out (the latter being tossed from dish washing duty). Ramsey then placed Vinny on the meat station, who managed to successfully get the kitchen back on track. In the red kitchen, Melissa forgot a ravioli before serving it cold, and later received a lecture for miscalculating how many ravioli were needed for three orders. Sabrina was confused on timing for meat, requiring Melissa's help, and Gail served crunchy pasta as a result of Sabrina sabotaging her by bringing her meat to the pass early. However, the woman managed to complete service and were then ordered to help the men, but struggled to do so as a result of all the previous mistakes in the blue team's kitchen. Ramsay kicked everyone out after it was revealed no one knew whether the garnish for the pork was at the pass or not. The proposal took place as planned, but Ramsay named both teams losers.

Elimination: The blue team nominated Boris and Louis, while the women initially agreed on Melissa and Gail as their nominees, but Nona convinced them to nominate Sabrina instead of Gail which led to a heated argument between Sabrina and Melissa in the dorms. Ramsey first sent Boris and Melissa back in line and then eliminated Louis for being the worst performer of the night.

Team challenge: The chefs prepared a tasting menu of an appetizer and two main dishes for the Beverly Hills High School prom committee. On the appetizer round, the red team had a dungeness crab cake with sautéed shrimp, while blue team had a sesame encrusted tuna with lemon crème fraîche. The women's crab cake scored over the men's tuna with all three preferring the crab cake. On the first entrée round, the women presented a ribeye with a tuna ceviche on top, while the men presented a halibut over a seafood broth. Despite the blue team, and even Ramsey, being flabbergasted over the red team's choice of putting raw tuna on top of a ribeye, the committee awarded the point to the red team as the blue team severely overcooked their halibut, meaning the women automatically win the challenge with two points out of the possible three. Despite this, the women still manage to score with their last entrée, with the red team's potstickers scoring over the men's ribeye with roasted red potatoes, leading to the first ever challenge shutout in Hell's Kitchen history.

Reward/punishment: The women visited the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. The men cleaned the kitchens and help the prom committee put up decorations. Angered by the punishment and having to be told what to do by high school students, Russell rudely addressed the prom committee when one of them casually talked about the men's teamwork, until being reprimanded by James.

Service: The dinner service was for the prom. Vinny and Nona assisted Ramsay plating food. The blue team got a fish entrée added to the menu, since all of the red team's dishes were meat-based. In the red kitchen, Sabrina's strong performance on appetizers got the kitchen off to a good start, but was hampered due to Emily serving soggy crab cakes. The problems continued as Melissa managed to overcook all 23 filets that were on order before the red kitchen had even finished serving appetizers, and Emily held up the kitchen by serving raw halibut while Gail undercooked garnish. Ramsey also scolded Melissa for slicing meat despite it being undercooked, however, Nona interrupted him, causing him to scold her instead. The blue team had a rocky start as a result of Boris cooking crab cakes ahead of time and then serving some of them undercooked. However, the team rallied behind him to send out appetizers and after that managed to have an almost flawless performance on entrées thanks to Russell's leadership and his strong performance on meat, with the only problem being Boris holding up a ticket due to not having the halibut quite ready in time. Both teams finished service; Ramsay named the men winners for their strong finish despite a few problems early on while praising Russell; Sabrina was named "Best of the Worst" on the red team, although Nona openly disagreed and was reprimanded by Ramsey.

Elimination: Sabrina nominated Melissa and Emily. After asking Nona for her opinion, Ramsay eliminated Emily for being consistently the weakest performer on the red team, much to Sabrina's dismay. However, Ramsay warned Melissa that she was now on her absolute last chance, and had only survived because the other women had strongly defended her in the past.

Team change: Prior to the team challenge, Ramsay moved Melissa to the men's team as one more chance to improve, while sending Trev to the women's team as a way for him to step up as a leader.

Team challenge: The chefs prepared entree salads. Sarah Tenaglia, the senior food editor of Bon Appétit magazine, was the guest judge. Gail and Trev scored for the red team, while Russell and Rob scored for the blue team, ending in a 2-2 tie. For the tie breaker, Sarah decided on the best salad of the day, which came down to Gail's and Rob's salads; Rob's salad was named best, giving the blue team the win.

Reward/punishment: The blue team had lunch at the Getty Villa in Malibu, and Rob's salad was added to dinner service and featured in Bon Appétit magazine. The red team had to eat a flower salad with bugs for lunch.

Service: Jillian and Rob were assigned to a salad station to make and plate Rob's challenge winning salad and were also assigned to take the orders and serve the chef's tables that night. In the red kitchen Gail and Trev put in strong performances on appetizers and meat respectively, but Nona continuously undercooked the scallops for the salad, forcing Ramsey to have to tell Trev to cook them for her. Sabrina struggled on garnish throughout the night, including thinking that meat station was responsible for cooking gnocchi, and argued with Trev. In the blue kitchen, Russell had a strong performance on appetizers but was unable to serve some of them due to Boris overcooking the shrimp for them, while Melissa continuously undercooked and overcooked the scallops for Rob's salad and eventually ran out, forcing Ramsey to replace it with a rock shrimp salad. Boris continued to struggle on garnish by first serving chalky mashed potatoes for one ticket and then getting distracted and having paper on his station catch on fire. On the last ticket, he served soggy chicken garnish, causing Ramsay to throw him out. Though both teams finished service, Ramsay named no winner and had the teams nominate one chef for elimination.

Elimination: Sabrina and Boris were nominated; Ramsay also nominated Nona and Melissa. Much to Sabrina's delight, Ramsay eliminated Melissa for her consistently poor performances, making too many simple mistakes, and failing to bounce back after her move to the blue team.

Team challenge: The chefs spun a modified roulette wheel with 18 letters of the alphabet.[note 1] Each chef had to name an ingredient starting with the letter that the ball landed on and then had 30 minutes to cook a dish using those ingredients.[note 2] The red team won after Rob failed to season asparagus and yams properly.

Reward/punishment: The red team went to Las Vegas and enjoyed a special appearance by Penn & Teller while the blue team prepped the potatoes for French fries.

Service: The theme for service was family night. Special guests included Ramsay's family, and Jerry Springer and his family. Both teams managed to serve fries on time and had relatively few problems. In the blue kitchen, Vinny was scolded for making too many portions of risotto at once and attempting to serve an old risotto to Ramsay's wife due to being behind. Boris, despite cooking meat perfectly, almost sliced on a dirty board until Ramsay jumped in and Rob struggled to keep up on garnish. In the red kitchen, Jillian served a risotto with too little puree in it but quickly recovered, and Nona fell behind on garnish, requiring her team's assistance. In addition, Sabrina annoyed Trev due to asking him to continuously double check her meat, served undercooked chicken (which Trev thought was cooked), cooked a grilled cheese too early and then argued with Trev about it. Despite these problems though, both teams completed service and both garnered a satisfaction rating of 90%, making both teams winners, though Ramsay had each team nominate two chefs for elimination.

Elimination: The red team nominated Sabrina and Nona while the blue team nominated Boris and Rob. Ramsay called down Nona and Rob, and asked Rob to remove his jacket, but surprised him with a clean jacket, retaining all chefs for a job well done.

Team challenge: The chefs visited a local supermarket Bristol Farms, where they had 20 minutes and 60 dollars to buy ingredients for four dishes; beef, pork, lamb and chicken. They then had 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Four judges, one for each type of meat, were brought in to assess how much they would pay for the dishes. The red team won $110 to $101, with Nona's dish being valued the highest at $32.

Reward/punishment:The red team went sail boating, had a seaside dinner and went mambo dancing, while the blue team had to fumigate both kitchens and prep them for the black tie dinner service.

Service: In celebration of Hell's Kitchen's 100th service, service was an invitation-only, black tie affair. Four past Hell's Kitchen winners were sat at the chef's tables; Rahman "Rock" Harper (Season 3) and Christina Machamer (Season 4) in the blue kitchen, and Danny Veltri (Season 5) and Holli Ugalde (Season 7) in the red kitchen. Also in attendance were various dignitaries and celebrities such as cast members of Lesley Bargar Suter, Iqbal Theba, Patrick Gallagher, Hugh Garvey and Sarah Tenaglia. The red team near-flawlessly completed service, their only problems being Nona serving an old risotto, due to Gail saying it was alright, and Trev heavily struggling on garnish by not knowing which garnishes went with which item and quickly falling behind as result. Eventually, the entire kitchen was called over to help him, and Trev was eventually kicked out for burning carrots and squash as well as serving raw gnocchi, allowing Nona to take control of the station, ensuring a smooth service for the red team, in particular thanks to Gail's leadership. In the blue kitchen, Boris, despite cooking good dishes, struggled to keep up on the appetizer station while also struggling to time them correctly for most of the night, eventually requiring Rob's help. Russell, on garnish, refused to communicate properly with Rob, on meat, which led to Rob forgetting a chicken for an order. This in turn backed up the entire kitchen which, along with Boris' and Rob's slow work on their respective stations, put the blue kitchen eight tables behind the red kitchen. Vinny also had three lobsters returned from the dining room for being overcooked, and Ramsey kicked the blue team out after Rob served undercooked chicken and Vinny served undercooked lobster. The red team completed their service, being deemed clear winners.

Team change: After warning Trev about his horrendous performance, Ramsay reassigned him to the blue team and warned him he was on his last chance, re-igniting the battle of the sexes. No elimination sequence was given for Boris, but his jacket and burnt photo could be seen when Ramsay hung up Gail's jacket.

Scott brought a room service cart where the chefs enjoyed its various offerings, but Ramsay noticed they could not tell a five-star appetizer from a fast-food one, leading to the next challenge.

Team challenge: The teams did a blindfold taste test of various food items. Russell identified two ingredients compared to Gail's one. Sabrina and Rob incorrectly identified white asparagus, smoked mussels, cheddar cheese, and thought filet mignon was chicken, shocking the chefs and Chef Ramsay. Jillian and Vinny both scored two. Lastly, Nona scored three compared to Trev's one, giving the women a 6–5 win, and impressed Chef Ramsay on her palate.

Reward/punishment: The women went on a $2000 shopping spree at a local boutique and dined at XIV, a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Michael Mina, while the men removed recyclables from a garbage truck filled with trash, dined on American cheese sandwiches and prepped both kitchens for service. Prior to service, Trev noticed the animosity present in the kitchen, particularly from Russell, acknowledging that things had changed since he had been on the blue team and knew he would have to perform perfectly that night in order to stay.

Service: In the red kitchen, Jillian and Sabrina produced perfect appetizers and scallops respectively and got the kitchen off to a good start. However, Nona struggled on meat by first forgetting to cook a portion of chicken and then struggling to slice it. Sabrina had a strong performance on fish and, thanks to her leadership, the red team managed to keep sending out entrées. However, Nona again forgot to cook three portions of meat and argued with Ramsey after he caught her trying to sear it in a cold pan. Due to this, Ramsey threw her out of the kitchen and had Jillian take over. In the blue kitchen, Trev produced perfect risotto and spaghetti, but Rob undercooked scallops, forcing Ramsey to show him how to properly cook them. On entrées, Rob served undercooked halibut, due to Russell pushing him to serve it, but shaped up after a warning from Ramsey. Vinny was kicked out after he overcooked an egg dish and served raw gnocchi, as was Russell for serving raw chicken and Rob for more undercooked fish; Trev managed to complete his team's service with help from Sous Chef Andi. Ramsay was dissatisfied but named the women winners, in particular praising Jillian and Sabrina, while naming Trev "Best of the Worst". After the post-mortem, Ramsay gave Nona encouragement but warned her not to argue with him again during service.

Elimination: Trev nominated Rob and Russell. Ramsay eliminated Rob for his consistently poor performances and outstaying his welcome.

Team challenge: The chefs had to prepare three dishes: tagliatelle, salmon with lobster ragout and poached chicken. However, only one chef from the team was allowed in the kitchen at a time and the chef had five minutes before having 15 seconds to brief the next chef. Ramsay rated the dishes and awarded the men the win, since Jillian dropped her salmon.

Reward/punishment: The men went on a shopping spree at Sur La Table for cooking equipment, followed by dinner at Mélisse, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Santa Monica, where they met its head chef, Josiah Citrin. The women took in deliveries of food for Hell's Kitchen.

Service: The teams created their own menus, and diners had a choice between the two. Although the diners ordered more from the red team, Citrin ordered from the blue team. In the red kitchen, Nona made poor mushroom risotto and Gail served unacceptable lobster capellini seven consecutive times, forcing Ramsay to kick her out. In the blue kitchen, Vinny forgot to cook an order of lamb, which was made worse due to it being for Citrin's order, and then served it undercooked. Russell helped him, which allowed the blue team to serve Citrin's table, but Citrin reacted negatively to his lamb, angering Ramsay. After that, Vinny served raw sea bass, but recovered, and the blue team was then able to complete service. Although both teams completed service, Ramsay named no winner. Ramsay had the chefs individually nominate another for elimination.

Elimination: Russell nominated Vinny, Trev and Vinny nominated Sabrina, and Gail, Jillian, Nona and Sabrina all nominated Trev. Ramsay called Trev down, but gave him the first black jacket; Jillian, Nona, Russell and Sabrina were then given black jackets. Ramsay then gave Gail the last black jacket and eliminated Vinny for worsening performances, making him the third consecutive man to leave.

Challenge: In the first individual challenge, each chef had 30 minutes to create five servings of an amuse-bouche to be judged by five notable chefs in the Los Angeles area with a score of 0 to 20 (10 for presentation and 10 for taste). The final ranking was: Russell (100), Gail (87), Sabrina (70), Nona (67), Jillian (65) and Trev (62).

Reward/punishment: Russell received a tour of LA Market with Ramsay, a meeting with executive chef Kerry Simon, and chose Gail to join him. The others had to prep the kitchen and clean the dorms.

Service: Nona served Steak Diane at tableside. The black jacket's had a terrible dinner service; Sabrina, Trev, and Gail backed up the kitchen repeatedly on appetizers, with Sabrina first overcooking and frying risotto, Trev serving "stewed" spaghetti, and Gail serving scallops with no color and then overcooking them when she attempted to resear them. In addition, Russell caused friction by attempting to tell Trev what to do on appetizers, while both Trev and Sabrina struggled to work together. After Trev screamed at Sabrina as a result of a miscommunication over the lobster spaghetti, Sous-Chef Scott angrily berated him and told him to get his act together. This continued throughout service with Trev getting increasingly angry over Sabrina's repeated requests for times, eventually causing Ramsay to pull them both aside and berate them for not working as a team. As a result of Sabrina and Trev's repeated problems on appetizers, entrees eventually caught up with appetizers. However, things didn't get better on entrees, with Gail serving burned halibut and watery salmon, Jillian served salty mashed potato. After Russell served undercooked Wellingtons, Ramsay issued an ultimatum to shut down service after another mistake. Some entrées were served, but after Russell undercooked ribeye, Ramsay threw everyone out.

Elimination: Trev and Sabrina were nominated.[note 3] Ramsay eliminated Sabrina for her inconsistency and lack of maturity, but praised her for her big heart.

Challenge: The chefs had to prepare 80 portions of their signature dishes in one hour in a food truck; the diners at LA Market ranked the dishes from best to worst. Over 40% of the diners voted for Gail's skirt steak with mangoes and pecans entrée as the best, narrowly beating out Nona's chicken salad and bacon sandwich, while Russell's grilled octopus and aioli salad entrée was deemed the worst.

Reward/punishment: Gail went to José Eber's studio in Beverly Hills for a makeover followed by a trip back to Hollywood for a new style look by Steve "Cojo" Cojocaru. The others had to clean the exterior of Hell's Kitchen and wash the food trucks.

Service: Ramsay assigned stations to the chefs. In addition to Cojo, Paris Hilton and twelve Marines were also in attendance. The kitchen immediately got off to a terrible start, with Jillian repeatedly overcooking scallops on appetizers, due to her inexperience working the fish station, and Nona undercooking spaghetti. Both managed to recover however with Russell showing Jillian how to cook the scallops. However, the kitchen continued to have trouble on entrées, with Jillian continuing to struggle on fish until Russell helped her and Gail failing to communicate with the rest of the kitchen. After Gail and Trev served under cooked fries and ribeye respectively Ramsay and Scott stormed out, making the 2nd time since Season 6 chef Ramsay walked out of the kitchen. However, the chefs managed to continue sending out appetizers under Russell and Nona's leadership, but stalled on entrées when Trev overcooked meat on a ticket and then tried to quickly flash grill the undercooked ribeye from before (which had sat on the pass for fifteen minutes) for the re-fire. Ramsay and Scott then returned and Ramsay mixed the chef's stations around, issuing an ultimatum to kick out anyone who made a mistake. He kicked out Gail for undercooking salmon and Jillian for serving a raw egg dish, while the remaining three completed service.

Elimination: After dinner service, Ramsey berated the black jacket team in particular Gail, Jillian and Trev. Ramsey noted that Jillian had better services weeks ago, while Gail couldn't seem to cook for more than one table at a time (even commenting that she may do better as a short order cook with a restaurant in her living room) and stated that it was Trev's undercooked meat that drove him to exit the kitchen. He then instructed the team to come up with two nominations for elimination, and the team ultimately decided on Gail and Trev as the choices. Ramsey accepted the nominations but also demanded an explanation from Jillian for her performance, with Ramsey warning her that he didn't like what he saw. Ramsay eliminated Gail for her worsening performances over the past three services, remarking that he expected her to go further based on her strong start and was disappointed.

Challenge: Each chef had 30 minutes to cook an entrée using the ingredients provided; Ramsay tasted each dish and identified its ingredients by taste alone. This led to the actual "taste it, make it" challenge, where the chefs had 45 minutes to recreate a dish that Ramsay made without knowing the ingredients. Jillian made a good-tasting dish, but missed every ingredient except for the chicken stock. Trev correctly identified port wine in the sauce and carrot purée rather than yam purée, but forgot to plate the puree, and used pork instead of veal. Nona and Russell were declared the top two for correctly identifying veal, but Russell seasoned his cabbage with bacon instead of pancetta as required, thus giving Nona the win.

Reward/punishment: Nona received a copy of Ramsay's cookbook, Recipes From a 3 Star Chef and a set of cookware. She also chose Russell to accompany her for a day at Hands On Boutique Spa for massages. Trev and Jillian prepped the kitchen and did laundry, including Ramsay's chef's whites. Prior to service, Ramsay gave Jillian a pep talk after her recent poor performances.

Service: Trev spent a long time slicing beef Wellingtons despite cooking them perfectly. When he tripped and forgot two wellingtons, Ramsay put him in "time out" twice. Russell had some mishaps on scallops and halibut and Nona miscooked risotto twice, but Jillian cooked garnishes perfectly. Eventually, they completed service, which Ramsay called "not perfect, but bloody good".

Ramsay announced that since no chef was eliminated last time, he would eliminate two chefs in this round.

Challenge: The chefs had 45 minutes to cook a fusion cuisine dish, using a combination of ingredients from two countries, selected by drawing flags at random.[note 4] Each dish was then judged by three chefs who were experts in fusion cuisine. While Trev, Nona and Russell received mediocre reviews, Jillian impressed with her Spanish/Thai paella dish.

Reward/punishment: Jillian joined her family and Ramsay for lunch at Spago, while the others cleared out the dorm furnishings of their past contestants. Prior to the service, Ramsay told the chefs they would each have a turn handling the pass.

Service: Los Angeles Lakers basketball player Sasha Vujačić was a guest at the chef's table while Sanjaya Malakar attended as a guest. As each chef took a turn on the pass, Scott introduced some deliberate errors. Russell rejected Trev's scallops and spotted pecans in a salad instead of walnuts. Nona was strong in leadership, rejecting Russell's chowder, but was not able to spot mashed celery root being served instead of mashed potatoes. Trev tried to send out entrees before appetizers on a table and had trouble getting the attention of his teammates, but spotted seabass being served instead of halibut and kept entrées leaving the kitchen at a steady rate. Jillian originally struggled in leadership, but recovered after prompting by Ramsay, rejecting Trev's undercooked fish, though she failed to spot rib eye steak being served instead of New York strip steak.

Elimination: Ramsay firstly eliminated Trev, but praised him for his determination. Ramsay then selected Russell and Nona to advance to the final, eliminating a teary-eyed Jillian. Ramsay allowed Jillian to keep her jacket, though her photo was burned.

Nona and Russell talked with the sous chefs on preparing a full dinner service where they would run their own kitchens. They were taken by helicopter to the top of the Marriott building for their final individual challenge.

Challenge: Nona and Russell prepared five dishes for a taste challenge; each dish was judged by an executive or executive chef, including Kerry Simon. Russell won 3–2.

Russell was granted first pick in drafting a team using the eight chefs eliminated from the competition prior to the final. Russell picked Jillian, Vinny, Sabrina and Rob, while Nona picked Gail, Melissa and Trev, and was left with Boris. In particular, Vinny felt Russell cost him a black jacket by nominating him, and did not want to be on his team, displaying poor attitude throughout prep until Russell threatened to kick him out.

Service: Both teams got through appetizers fine, save for Vinny undercooking scallops and Trev overdressing a beet salad. On entrees, Sabrina cooked a filet in stock before she served it raw, so Russell switched her with Vinny on fish. Rob ran out of tomato water for ravioli and Russell sent Jillian to help him, irritating Rob and nearly leading to a physical confrontation. Russell tried to serve two tables at once, but this backfired when one dish was returned for being undercooked, earning him a warning from Ramsay. In the red kitchen, Boris served raw halibut three times, forcing Trev to jump in, causing an argument to erupt between the two that Nona had to defuse. Melissa served raw steak to Nona's husband, but recovered. Both teams finished service.

Winner: Ramsay determined the winner based on the diners' comments and his own observations. Each finalist stood in front of a door; Nona's door opened, making her the eighth winner of Hell's Kitchen. Unlike all of the previous and succeeding runners-up of Hell's Kitchen, Russell took his defeat ungraciously, blaming his teammates for his loss.