Hell's Kitchen (American season 14)

Twenty initial contestants arrive at Hell's Kitchen, only to find that the doors to the restaurant aren't open, much to their confusion. They then see chef Gordon Ramsay on top of the roof of Hell's Kitchen. He tells them through a megaphone that he wants to see how committed they are to being there by jumping off the roof before they can enter and asks for volunteers. After two contestants (Ruth and Enrique) have jumped off the roof it's revealed that both of them are in fact stuntmen, and not real contestants. Chef Ramsay says how happy he is that everyone volunteered, before the real contestants are then asked to get into Hell's Kitchen and cook their signature dish.

Team challenge/signature dish: The teams are divided into men versus women with both teams cooking in front of a live audience, similar to the Signature Dish challenge from the previous season, only this time taking place within Hell's Kitchen itself. The dishes are scored on a scale of 1–5, with 1 being a disaster, and 5 being a "truly outstanding dish". Both Josh's seared scallops with mango pineapple salsa and Sarah's seared filet mignon got 4 points. The scores stayed the same as Christine's seared scallop with braised pork belly and Brendan's tempura soft-shell crab also received 4 points. Nick's pan-seared duck breast got 3 points, but Michelle's huevos rancheros got 4 points. The men regained the lead, as Mieka's shrimp cake with peach salsa was deemed "all bad" and received 1 point, but Randy's raspberry bourbon barbecue salmon got 3 points. Milly's seafood mac and cheese got a respectable 3 points, however Meghan's pan-seared rainbow trout heavily impressed, receiving a perfect 5 points. Chrissa's ginger cookie chicken was spat out and deemed hideous so she only got 1 point, and Michael's herb-roasted statler chicken breast got 3 points. The men extended their lead to two as Alison's pan-seared red snapper got 3 points, but Adam's lamb chops got 4 points. T's coffee-crusted flank steak received a perfect 5 points, whilst Cameron's coriander-rubbed rack of lamb still got an excellent 4 points. In the final round, with the men leading by one, Bret's bone in veal chop saltimbocca got 3 points, and lastly Monique's pasta earned only 1 point for using sauce from a jar instead of making it from scratch. Monique then argued with Ramsay about it in front of the audience, as she didn't see the problem with using sauce from a jar. Despite the women having two 5 point dishes, they were hugely let down by Mieka, Chrissa, and Monique, which sealed the 31–28 win for the men, marking the first time the men won the signature dish challenge since season 9.

Reward/punishment: The women stayed behind to reset the dining room for dinner service in addition to folding, stuffing and sealing stacks of Hell's Kitchen reservation confirmation letters. T argued with Monique about using tomato sauce from a jar, which she believed had ruined their chances of winning. The men rode a hummer to Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach to meet William Shatner and Billy Sherwood, which the men loved especially Brendan. Shatner also handed out the menu books he signed for them.

Service: Right before dinner service, Chrissa was making her team unsure of her as she seemed unfocused, and asked Ramsay if she could go to the bathroom. In attendance for opening night were Dean McDermott, Michael Ohoven, Joyce Giraud and Delanie Walker. Josh and T were also serving tableside. Both dinner services had their fair share of mistakes: in the red kitchen, Chrissa didn't do much and wandered around a lot, gradually becoming a distraction to her team until Ramsay ordered her to go and help T on tableside. He then told Meghan, who actually knew what to do, to help Sarah on garnish instead of Chrissa. Thanks to Mieka and Michelle on fish, appetizers got out quickly. In the blue kitchen, Cameron had problems seasoning the risotto, needing Nick's help. Michael sent boiled scallops for the first table after taking an awful long amount of time to cook them, but rebounded. On entrees, Bret and Milly served up a raw lamb, but recovered after that, and the blue team finished the first service, leaving Ramsay fairly happy with their performance. The same could not be said for the red team as they got stalled on the meat for Dean McDermott. Christine and Monique served raw lamb and dry pork chop because Monique didn't realize her oven wasn't on. When they finally managed to cook the lamb correctly, the pork was raw. When Ramsay saw them joined by Alison, Meghan, Mieka, and T on meat yet still weren't able to push it out, he ejected the women. This season marked the first time since season 7 that the men won the opening dinner service.

Elimination: The women were called down by sous chef Andi. Ramsay met them on the stairs and told them to come up with two nominees for elimination. The women originally decided to nominate Christine and Monique for their mistakes on the meat station. However, they quickly turned their attention to Chrissa, who was trying to make coffee and broke a glass while everyone else deliberated, which led them to believe she was in over her head and not taking her place in Hell's Kitchen seriously. Monique and Chrissa were ultimately nominated, but Ramsay also personally called out Christine, due to her poor performance on the meat station. Ramsay ultimately eliminated Chrissa for being out of her element on the signature dish, before dinner service, during dinner service, and even while she was being eliminated, as she originally wandered off towards the exit without giving Chef Ramsay her jacket. This marked the first time since Season 8, where a member of the red team was eliminated on opening night.

Team challenge: Both teams each have to retrieve 25 crabs from the ocean. This also meant that most of them had to in fact learn how to navigate a rowboat; the men coped with this better, getting back first and earning themselves a 30-second head-start for the next part of the challenge, where the teams were split into pairs to present ten perfect crab cake dishes after they shucked, sautéed, and plated them. Milly, Nick, and Adam worked as a trio due to the men having an extra member. Despite the men's head-start, the women won ten to seven, due to Michael and Bret only presenting one plate because of Michael's sluggishness. T and Michelle were the stand-out performers, single-handedly getting four dishes accepted by Ramsay.

Reward/punishment: The women head to Scottsdale, Arizona to go horseback riding at Cave Creek Outfitter and have dinner at Talavera. In addition, Marino accompanied them on their reward. The men were left in the kitchen peeling shrimp and prepping the clams and lobsters for a special that'll be served at the next dinner service. Tempers ran high when Cameron attempted to dictate to the others and Josh told him bluntly to back off. Just before service started, Ramsay caught Michael looking over the recipe for risotto, and berated him for not having already learned the recipe by heart. Mieka also worried her team due to not knowing the recipes for garnish.

Service: Guests in attendance were Jai Rodriguez, and Workaholics actors Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm. Milly did well on hot appetizers, but Michael sent out a beet salad when it wasn't on the ticket. Cameron sent up raw and overcooked scallops, so Ramsay showed Cameron how to cook scallops to perfection. However, Cameron said having Ramsay in the kitchen only made him more nervous and intimidated; Brendan, his partner on the station, eventually helped him complete his first dish. As the men finally started to pick up the pace, Brendan and Cameron burned salmon, so Ramsay forced them to eat it. Michael took over the station in the meantime, but Brendan undercooked scallops when he returned to the station, leading to all three of them being thrown out. Minutes later, the rest of team was ejected after Nick and Josh didn't know what was on order. Things ran much smoother to begin with in the red kitchen thanks to T's vocal leadership on the appetizer section, though this irritated Monique who found T overbearing. On entrees, Alison and Michelle gave conflicting reports to Ramsay on meat, so T ended up having to step in and supervise them as well. Mieka got completely overwhelmed on garnish and struggled to communicate with the other stations, needing Meghan's help to get back on track. Eventually, the women rallied and were named winners for completing their dinner service. The men had to come up with two people for elimination.

Elimination: The men nominated Cameron and Michael, while also considering Brendan. Despite Ramsay being annoyed with Michael's lack of preparedness for service, he ultimately eliminated Cameron for his poor performance on the fish station, and for admitting he was intimidated by Ramsay during service.

Team challenge: After an early morning wake-up call from sous chef James, the teams were brought outside Hell's Kitchen, where two lakes of icy water had been set up; one containing fish heads, and one containing fish bodies. The teams were split into pairs and each had to match up the heads and bodies of a particular fish; the men accomplished this first, and got five extra minutes in which to cook dishes using one of the four varieties of fish. The four dishes of each type of fish were to be judged against each other by Ramsay and guest judge Michael Cimarusti, who would award the best dishes a point. Bret took the first point for the men with his trout dish, before Mieka took a point for her salmon dish, and Sarah earned a 2–1 lead for the women with her cod dish. On the final round it initially looked as the challenge would end in a tie, as Michelle's and Alison's halibut dishes were deemed mediocre, and both Milly's and Adam's were well-liked. However, Chef Cimarusti noticed that both of the men's dishes used the exact same side of rice, and the two men admitted that due to Adam being unable to cook his intended risotto side in time, Milly allowed him to borrow some spare rice. Ramsay deemed this to be in violation of the challenge rules, however, and instantly disqualified Milly and Adam. Michelle's dish was chosen to receive the final point, as it was slightly better than Alison's, meaning that the women won 3–1.

Reward/punishment: The women headed to Manhattan Beach where they receive surfing lessons from Anastasia Ashley and had lunch. The men hand prepped fish for dinner service in addition to eating peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches. When James announced that lunch would be served soon, Michael misheard him and thought that it was lunchtime and ran upstairs to the dorm to make himself something to eat, until James brought him back downstairs. Randy accidentally cut his finger to the bone and went to the hospital to get stitches, though he returned in time for dinner service.

Service: Guests in attendance were Jay Williams, Anastasia Ashley and Samm Levine. Both teams had very rocky services. The women were backed up from the start by Mieka failing to produce an acceptable risotto, while T burned a flatbread pizza, and Alison and Monique overcooked scallops and blamed each other. After Christine and Mieka brought up a dry risotto and overcooked pasta on the final table of appetizers, the entire team was ejected; Sarah made the situation worse by asking under her breath if they could try again. In the blue kitchen, Adam had a plate of scallops were returned with a piece of plastic in the salad. Michael let Milly do his work on garnish cooking flatbreads and also made an extremely dangerous mistake by heating up a pan to the point where it was smoking hot, then leaving it on top of the cold pans under the fish station; Ramsay angrily told Michael that had Bret or Josh unknowingly grabbed the pan, they could have sustained a third-degree burn. On entrees, Nick twice sent up raw pork and argued that he would have eaten it. The team managed to get some of their entrees out, but then Michael brought up the garnishes for a rack of lamb far too early. Nick brought up the lamb, which was totally raw, and got the entire team thrown out.

Elimination: For the first time in the history of Hell's Kitchen, Chef Ramsay went up to the dorms to demand two people for elimination from each team. The women nominated Christine and Mieka, while the men nominated Michael and Nick, despite considering Adam for his plastic in the scallop salad. Ramsay eliminated Michael for being a consistently poor performer, and especially because of his mistake with the hot pan. He then warned the remaining chefs, that the next time he had a dinner service as bad as that, more than one person could possibly be eliminated.

Team challenge: After the chefs spent the night playing drinking games, which Bret refused to take part in, considering them pointless and immature, they were brought to a football field, where they were told that they would be preparing classic American comfort foods (spaghetti, burgers, pizzas and mac and cheese) for their next challenge. The chefs worked in pairs except for Randy. Each chef caught footballs, which would determine the ingredients they got to use for their dishes, before returning to Hell's Kitchen to prepare their dishes, which would be judged by guest chefs Suzanne Goin and David Burke. Bret earned the first two points over Michelle for his pizza. Meghan's burger easily defeated Randy's, which was dry and overcooked, tying the scores. Josh beat out Alison on mac and cheese, as the latter made the questionable decision to serve it in a bun, and also undercooked it. In the final round, Sarah's seemingly complicated spaghetti, lobster and prosciutto dish was deemed outstanding over Brendan's carbonara, not only winning the points, but being used as a tie-breaker and resulting in the women winning their third successive challenge.

Reward/punishment: The women got cocktails aboard the American Pride in Long Beach where they were joined by Ramsay. The men had to peel a huge shipment of onions, in addition to preparing both kitchens for the night's service. Bret remained visibly angry throughout the punishment, and nearly provoked a major argument with the team after he openly accused them of being content to lose the challenges.

Service: For the family night service, many of the comfort foods cooked in the previous challenge were on the menu. Brendan cooked a risotto that was far too small, and Bret attempted to recycle that risotto into a new one; Ramsay angrily threatened to throw them out if they attempted anything like that again. The rest of the appetizers went without any major hiccups, and entrees initially went well, despite Ramsay accusing Milly of working too slowly. When Adam and Nick overcooked New York strip and salmon, the entire team was forced to eat them. After that, the men completed service, although Ramsay nevertheless labelled their performance embarrassing and pathetic. The women got through the appetizer stage without much trouble except for Sarah burning the scallops and Michelle needlessly adding extra salt to Alison's mac and cheese, rendering it inedible. However, things rapidly fell apart during entrees thanks to Mieka and Monique repeatedly serving up raw wellingtons and steaks. Mieka constantly asked the others their opinions on the temperature of a New York strip, wasting so much time that it became overcooked. To make matters worse, it was the last New York strip they had, making it impossible for them to finish service. Ramsay angrily ejected the team, and to add insult to injury, Andi then informed him that Sarah had served up a raw burger, which an irate Ramsay brought out to the team in the corridor, before telling the women to decide on two nominees for elimination.

Elimination: While the women agreed that Mieka and Monique had been the two worst performers of night, T suggested nominating Monique and Sarah, hoping Ramsay would eliminate Monique, who they believed was a disruptive influence and kept the team from succeeding. Monique informed Ramsay of the team's plan to rig the elimination, but Ramsay called her and Sarah down anyway, before deciding to overrule the nominations, eliminating Mieka for struggling on three straight services and lacking confidence in herself.

Team challenge: The teams were called down to the dining room, where they were presented with a huge array of cheeses. Each member will pick one member from the opposite team they want to go up against, who will then spin the wheel to determine what cheese dish they'll be making. Then, they'll have to make it with one of the international cheeses that suit their dish the most. Nick easily beat out Monique on grilled cheese sandwich as the latter's was bland and overly simplistic. Meghan beat Milly on enchiladas, Adam and Christine both earned a point on cordon bleu dishes, as did Josh and Michelle on manicotti. Alison's potato croquette won the point by default, as Brendan didn't even know what a croquette was and instead presented a gnocchi, though Alison's dish was noted to be very good all the same. Randy then earned a point for his traditional lasagne, with Ramsay not particularly appreciating Sarah's unusual pistachio-filled lasagne. Tied at four going into the final round, T clinched the winning point on calzone after Bret served one with raw dough, resulting in the women winning their fourth consecutive challenge.

Reward/punishment: The women went jet skiing in Marina Del Ray while the men are tasked to break pieces off of the Parmesan cheese wheel where they have to prep it by grating the cheese which will then be served as part of tonight's table-side, much to the amusement of James.

Service: This service's table-side appetizer was Parmesan frica, served by Alison and Nick for their respective teams. Daddy Yankee and Dave Mustaine both appeared as guests for this service. The women started off well thanks to Meghan's strong leadership on appetizers, but were soon backed up by Monique undercooking and underseasoning spinach and eggplant. Meghan jumped on the garnish section, but in her absence Sarah undercooked risotto while Christine also undercooked salmon. Ramsay brought the team into the pantry to give them a final warning, only for Christine's next order of salmon to turn out burnt, leading to the whole team being ejected. For the men, Adam served risotto stuck to the pan, but recovered. Bret also overcooked their first order of salmon, but likewise got his remaining orders out correctly. Brendan struggled to communicate times on meat, overcooking lamb before holding up the kitchen for fifteen minutes on the refire. Despite this, the team won their second dinner service in a row. Ramsay was so disgusted by the red team's performance that he sent sous chef Andi up to the dorms to tell them to nominate two people for elimination.

Elimination: The women quickly decided on Monique as the first nominee, and considered Christine for being more directly at fault for the service's failure, before going with Sarah as the second nominee, feeling that she would have done even worse than Christine without Meghan's close supervision. Ramsay criticized Sarah for not bouncing back, but eliminated Monique for her refusal to admit any of the mistakes she made, being totally shunned by her team, and lack of improvement over five services.

Team challenge: The teams must cook lunch for current and retired firefighters who are in the middle of their charity ride to commemorate their friends. Both teams started reasonably well, though the women were held up slightly by Sarah's slowness at dressing the salads. Milly and T held up their respective teams by serving up raw chicken (which luckily Sarah noticed for the women). While Milly was quickly able to regroup and get the chicken out correctly, T and Sarah continued to struggle, before Meghan helped them get the orders cooked perfectly. The women soon found their rhythm and began catching up to the men, but the men finished one ticket ahead and won just their second challenge of the season.

Reward/punishment: The men broke their 4 challenge losing streak as they headed to Malibu for a private safari tour with lunch at the vineyard and enjoyed wine with Ramsay. Their server turned out to be Nick's ex-girlfriend, much to the surprise of the other men, as Nick is openly gay. The women were tasked to detail and clean the firetruck and prep 400 chicken wings for the next dinner service. During the punishment Meghan dragged the women into the pantry and angrily accused them of not putting as much effort into service as she did. While the other members (especially Alison) felt somewhat insulted by Meghan insinuating they were unworthy to work with her, Chef Ramsay felt that she was showing the passion needed to lead the team, and told her to step up in service. In a deleted scene, the red team also had to eat two full buckets of chili with one being six alarm hot and the other being less hotter. Sarah didn't eat as much as the others and we learned that Meghan is lactose intolerant.^[9]

Service: T and Bret were assigned tableside service, with Marino emphasizing the importance of talking to and entertaining the customers, something that Bret found himself having to do a lot, due to his team's struggles, when he entertained guest Bree Turner. The men were stalled out of the gate by Nick overcooking scallops twice, and things got worse on the entrees. Nick and Brendan were thrown out for undercooking salmon and halibut, while Josh was also thrown out for undercooking Wellington and lamb. After this, they rallied and successfully finished service, with Randy earning praise from Ramsay after taking over meat from Josh. On the red side, Christine served a bland, undercooked risotto, while Sarah also struggled to get the garnishes out. Meghan took it on herself to supervise both stations, as well as handling the fish. While her abrasive leadership continued to annoy the other women, the team got through the rest of the service without a single dish being rejected, and with Meghan and Alison doing especially well on the fish and the meat stations. As a result, Chef Ramsay deemed the women to be the clear winners, and told the men to nominate two for elimination.

Elimination: The team very quickly decided on the two fish station chefs, Brendan and Nick, and Brendan's arguing of the decision resulted in a huge argument between him and Milly. Ramsay eliminated Brendan for refusing to admit to his errors on fish, along with his consistently mediocre performances.

After dismissing the teams, Chef Ramsay called out Josh and warned him that he was not stepping up as a leader, and that he needed to be more assertive. Josh subsequently went into the dorms and gave himself a lengthy motivational speech, much to the bemusement of the other chefs.

Team challenge: The chefs assembled in the dining room and were given a display of Greek dancing, setting the theme for the next challenge. The chefs each chose a protein to cook a Greek dish with, and broke plates to determine their other ingredients. Chef Ramsay and guest judge Michael Psilakis would both award each chef between 1 and 5 points. Alison beat Josh 6-2 on lamb; Josh's dish had blood on the plate and the judges refused to taste it. Bret beat Michelle 8-3 on prawns, as the judges questioned Michelle's pairing of prawns with kiwi fruit sauce. Meghan beat Milly 9-6 on squid, but Randy beat T 10-7 on chicken, despite his lack of experience with Greek cuisine. Adam also scored a perfect 10 on pork, though's Christine 8 kept the women in contention. In the final round, Sarah's swordfish dish got 7 points, with Chefs Ramsay and Psilakis noting that it would likely have been a 10 with only a little more seasoning; this left Nick needing 5 points to win, and despite overcooking his swordfish quite badly, he still managed to earn the required number of points to win.

Reward/punishment: 2013 Miss California hosted the men's reward where they got to go go-kart racing. The women were assigned to pick up all the pieces from the broken plates and clean both kitchens for tonight's service. Sarah spent most of the punishment wandering around trying to find a place to plug in a vacuum cleaner, much to the annoyance of her teammates. Before service, Chef Ramsay pulled Milly, who was having a crisis of confidence about his level of experience, into the pantry for a pep-talk.

Service: In addition to Capeluj, Erik Palladino was also a guest for this service. Josh and Michelle were assigned tableside service, preparing an octopus appetizer. The men got through the appetizers without any major problems, thanks to Nick. On entrees, Randy added too much cream to mashed potatoes and then tried to deny being responsible for it, causing a lengthy argument among the team. Milly served poorly sliced wellingtons, and Adam used far too much oil to fry the fish. Meghan and T got the red team off to a good start with a flawless performance on the appetizers, but Alison served raw lobster and burned her poaching butter, forcing her to make a new batch and further holding up the team. They disintegrated on the entrees as Christine served raw and then burnt eggplant, needing Meghan to help her, while Sarah served raw wellingtons and overcooked lamb. Sarah overcooked lamb and burned chicken on a different ticket while Christine's lentils were overly garlicky. With the blue team having finished service at this point, Ramsay ejected the women and asked for two nominees for elimination, before calling in the men to finish their remaining eight tables.

Elimination: The women nominated Sarah and Christine, though briefly considered Alison for her early problems on the fish station and not doing enough to help out Christine. Ramsay initially offered to transfer Sarah to the men's team, which she was willing to take up, but changed his mind and eliminated her for her succession of terrible performances in service.

Team challenge: Each team member must create a dish out of an alcoholic beverage, either beer, wine or liquor. Then, their dish will be judged by Ramsay and guest bartenders John Ratzenberger and Marino. When the chefs were done cooking, the judges announced they were only tasting 3 dishes from each team (one beer, one wine, one liquor) on a scale from 1-5. Michelle impressed with her chocolate beer soufflé scoring 11 points, while Nick still earned a respectable 10 points for his team with his sweet potato donut with a beer and caramel sauce. Alison's ribeye with port wine sauce earned 10 points, while Adam's lamb with wine and poached pear reduction also earned the same score. In the liquor round, Meghan's pan seared duck breast got praise for the presentation, but only scored 9 points due to lack of acidity. Josh's grilled pork dish scored 11 points, making the final score 31-30 for the men.

Reward/punishment: The men head to Moonlight Rollerway for some rollerblading. They also have lunch and beer with James at the Golden Road Brewery. The women had to steam, starch and iron tablecloths in addition to washing the silverware.

Bret's exit: The next morning when both teams were prepping for dinner service, Bret took a bathroom break, during which he aggravated an existing slipped disc (though this could have happened in the reward as he fell on his back.) He was escorted to the dorm by his teammates to rest, but when Ramsay found out about the injury he went up to the dorms, and told Bret he could not continue in the competition as it could lead to permanent back injuries. Bret would return to Hell's Kitchen for Season 18.

Service: Chef's tables were featured during gastro-pub night. The men had Fred Willard in their kitchen while Jaleel White sat in the red kitchen. In addition, Meghan and Milly handled beer steamed razor clam table-side appetizers. Far East Movement were also in attendance. The women had an almost flawless service with the only two minor speed bumps being Christine getting confused over what appetizer was on order, and Alison serving a raw order of lamb and then blaming it on Michelle, but both of them recovered quickly. The same thing could not be said for the blue team. Adam on meat struggled to communicate with Randy on fish, falling behind on New York strip when Randy's fish and chips were ready. Randy brought scallops before Josh's risotto was ready and burned fish and chips. After Adam overcooked and undercooked lamb while Randy sent soggy fish, Ramsay asked the men to go up in the dorms and nominate two people while the women would finish their service.

Elimination: The men nominated Adam and Randy due to their problems on their respective stations. Ramsay also nominated Josh for not taking any initiative to try to save the meat station when Adam struggled. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Adam for being the main reason for the blue team losing dinner service and was also disappointed that he didn't bounce back.

Team challenge: Ramsay will reveal an exotic protein from each dome. The first person from each team who grabs the meat first will cook with it and present their dish for Chef Ramsay and guest judges Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, owners of the restaurant "Animal". They will score each dish on a scale of 1 to 5. Since Michelle didn't pick her protein, she chose alligator. Alison beat Nick 8-6 on elk, despite her dish's poor presentation, as Nick's dish is underseasoned. Meghan beat Josh 8-7 on wild boar, as Josh's dish was undercooked, and the cauliflower over-powered the rest of the dish. T beat Milly 11-9 on alligator, and Randy beat Christine 12-6 on the final round, ostrich, as Christine's dish was deemed too bland and too safe, giving the men a 34-33 win. Ramsay asked Michelle to bring the judges her alligator dish that was dropped in favor of T's. The judges concluded that it was the best dish of the day, and it was a shame it didn't count.

Reward/punishment: The men spent a day at the spa. Ramsay assigned the women to deep clean both kitchens. They then drank a milkshake filled with leftover exotic proteins from the challenge except for the alligator that Michelle ended up with.

Meetings: Chef Ramsay met with each chef individually, giving them feedback on their performance, as well as advice for the rest of the competition. He asked each chef to rank the rest of their team. At the end of the meetings, he announced that the bottom ranked chef from each team would compete in a "Cook for Your Life" challenge with the loser being eliminated. The bottom chefs were Randy for the blue team, and Christine for the red team.

Cook for your life challenge: Randy and Christine made a few small errors, but overall prepared acceptable dishes. However, Christine forgot the tomato confit in the risotto dish and attempted to make her own base for the bread pudding instead of using the base Chef Ramsay had prepared, causing it to turn out very dry. These factors led to her elimination.

Team challenge: The teams were cooking for Calabasas High School's homecoming dinner where the theme was Mardi Gras. Both teams had 35 minutes to create a menu of one seafood appetizer, one chicken entrée and one beef entrée to be judged by the homecoming committee. Milly scored over Alison and T on the appetizer, while Meghan scored over Randy on the chicken entrée by making fresh pasta. The beef entree would break the tie; Nick and Josh scored over Michelle to give the men their fifth challenge victory in a row.

Reward/punishment: With another victory, the men spent the afternoon attending a pirate show, while the women were tasked to help the homecoming committee decorate the dining room and make necklaces for all 200 guests from scratch. During the punishment, Michelle and T butted heads as T accused Michelle of trying to fit in with the homecoming committee and worrying too much about what T was doing instead of focusing on herself.

Service: Both teams had a few speed bumps during the appetizer stage. In the red kitchen T accidentally started a fire on the fish station, and Michelle held up an otherwise complete table with sliders. For the blue team Josh served alcoholic risotto and then undercooked pasta. On entrees, Milly forgot to turn the stoves on and then served up an order of raw snappers. Randy forgot to add the lobster to his sauce for the entree, but after that the service went smoothly. In the red kitchen Meghan and Michelle butted heads at the meat station as Meghan threw Michelle off the station even though Michelle originally was on there, thus forcing Michelle to switch to garnish. T overcooked red snapper, but quickly recovered. Alison tried to lead the team, but only managed to annoy them by saying the words "all day" repeatedly; regardless, they finished without any more incidents. At deliberation Ramsay said that both the teams did well but gave the red team the win in a close decision.

Team change: Ramsay asked the men to nominate the two people they felt were the weakest on the team. After much deliberation they decided to nominate Josh and Randy. When Ramsay asked Josh who he thought was the weakest he replied Nick, who he felt was hiding behind the other people on the team. After much deliberation, Ramsay decided to send Randy back in line and told Josh to give him his jacket, only to swap him to the red team in exchange for Meghan, as he felt the men were lacking a leader and hoped she could whip them into shape.

Team challenge: The teams participated in the annual blind taste test, where each chef had to identify ingredients only by taste and nothing else. The dunk-tanks from season thirteen were back. Milly scored an impressive perfect four out of four (only done once before by Justin Antiorio in Season 10), and Meghan scored three, but Nick and Randy each only identified one, so they both got dunked. For the red team, Josh scored three, while the others each scored two. With the score tied at nine, Josh and Milly were brought forward to break the tie in a sudden death match. Josh won for the red team by identifying avocado.

Reward/punishment: The red team was rewarded with a trip to Petrossian where they got to taste caviar. In addition, they were sent on a shopping spree with $500 each. The blue team was assigned to make sangria (including preparing all of the fruit) and to bring in tabletops to the dining room for tonight's service that will host two charities.

Service: This service was a special charity service for two different charities. The red team had cooked for Fran Drescher's "Cancer Schmancer" which includes the members plus Drescher, Ray Abruzzo and Peter Marc Jacobson while the blue team cooked for members from Stand Up Women's Network including Amy Davidson. Each chef was assigned to lead their team through a course. Alison got her risotto out without any problems, but Randy cooked portions in separate pans, leading to them being seasoned differently, and then didn't notice that Milly accidentally put out 16 plates instead of the 12 required. On the tuna nicoise course, Milly led his team without any major problems, aside from Nick being caught wiping a plate with a dirty rag, however the red kitchen overcooked all of their tuna, mostly due to Josh ignoring Alison's warnings that it was going to be overcooked, and was forced to retrieve some leftover tuna from the blue team. Josh then continually tried to take over the leadership role from both T's salmon course and Michelle's New York strip course, earning him the ire and annoyance from his teammates and Ramsay, while Nick and Meghan had no problems on salmon and steak except for Randy taking the salmon out of the oven too early. After dinner service Ramsay deemed the blue team winners, but only by a small margin and told the red team to come up with two for elimination.

Elimination: The red team nominated Josh for his troubles with the tuna, despite him trying to argue it was the smoothest course, and Michelle for lack of leadership on her course. However, Ramsay told both of them to get back in line, instead choosing to eliminate Randy due to his lack of experience and not bouncing back after his subpar leadership on his course, despite him being on the winning team. However, Ramsay did praise and commend Randy's performance up to that point and for being one of the fastest learners in Hell's Kitchen history.

Team challenge: The chefs had to go through a big pile of keys to find ones that would open lockers containing various cuts of steak. After having time to cook, they presented their dishes to Ramsay in a "King of the Hill" challenge. T initially got to sit on the throne with her ribcap, topping Milly's New York strip and Josh's porterhouse. Meghan managed to dethrone T with her own porterhouse, then Alison's ribeye and Nick's New York strip also missed the mark. Last up was Michelle, who beat Meghan and won the challenge for the red team even though she had selected the cheapest cut of steak (flank steak).

Reward/punishment: The red team head to Catalina Island where they enjoyed a submarine ride and a three course dinner at a member's only beach club. Ramsay also rewarded them a key which revealed four Vitamix blenders inside the chest. The blue team broke down a 250-pound side of beef as part of steak night in the next service.

Service: This was a special steak night, and it was the final service performed as two teams, with black jackets on the line. Jake Steinfeld and Jerry Hairston, Jr. were in attendance. Michelle's winning challenge dish was among the dishes served at this service. Both teams breezed through appetizers, save for Michelle serving watery capellini. On entrees, Nick served scorched, dried salmon, and Meghan made a rare mistake for her with a raw New York strip, but blue team completed their final orders with no further problems. Ramsay rewarded Meghan, Milly, and Nick with a "dessert" of their new black jackets. For the red team, Alison undercooked filet and salmon due to her inexperience on the fish station, and Josh fell behind the team on garnish while arguing with T, resulting in Ramsay sending out half of one table's order before the other half was finished. After Alison overcooked the salmon refire, Ramsay removed her from the fish station for T, which sped their service back up again. He also summoned the former members of the blue team to help the red team finish up their service. The final seven chefs were tasked collectively to come up with two people for elimination.

Elimination: The chefs nominated Alison for her failures with the filet and the salmon and Josh for his mistake with the garnish and his tendency to get flustered in the kitchen. After giving Michelle and T black jackets, Ramsay then called Josh and Alison forward, ultimately eliminating Alison for her failures on the fish station, although acknowledging her flashes of brilliance, before giving Josh the final black jacket.

Challenge: The chefs participated in the "taste it, now make it" challenge. Nick and Michelle won by correctly identifying the protein as sea bass and the seasoning of the broth as soy sauce. Josh and Meghan misidentified the sea bass as halibut, and Milly and T misidentified the broth as sake.

Reward/punishment: Nick and Michelle were rewarded with a trip in an amphibious car to the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, while the remaining chefs were forced to dig through Hell's Kitchen's trash and sort it out for recyclable materials. Ramsay also volunteered them to make 150 lb (68 kg) of mashed potatoes from scratch to donate to the organization Midnight Mission (this especially hit Milly hard because he had been homeless three times before in his life). During the punishment Josh continued to annoy his teammates due to his minimal contribution, both during recycling and doing the volunteer work for the shelter.

Service: Tatum O'Neal and her son, Sean McEnroe, are tonight's guests for the chef's table. Michelle served two Caesar salads on plates rather than in bowls. Meghan did well with the risottos, but Nick derailed her progress by adding cold lobster tails to them. On the chef's table, Michelle fell behind Meghan's risotto with her tuna and even then nearly undercooked it. On entrees, Josh allowed a fire to erupt on his station, and fell behind T when she quickly walked up the salmon, as he had not finished the lamb. He lied that T had not told him she was getting ready to walk her salmon when she actually had. Josh made things worse by undercooking chicken for the chef's table. When Tatum O'Neal decided that her Wellington was too raw, she asked for a halibut instead, which T cooked for her with no problems. Ultimately, service was completed with a perfectly cooked lamb from Josh, who had to recover from a series of mistakes and stumbles.

Elimination: At deliberation after service, Ramsay praised the final six for their strong service as one team, but he still asked them to go upstairs and nominate two for elimination. The black jackets nominated Josh for being frazzled and Michelle for being slower than everyone else. After much thought, Ramsay eliminated Josh due to his long downward spiral, much to everyone else's relief and delight, but praised him for his passion as well for bouncing back on this service after a string of bad services.

Challenge: The chefs had 45 minutes to make small dishes for the guests at a private concert which featured a performance by the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music orchestra. The chefs then presented their dishes to the guests, each of whom ranked the chef's dishes from best to worst. Milly won the competition in a blowout decision, with 55% of the vote. Meghan was the next closest with 18%. Milly chose T to join him on the reward, even though she had the dish with the fewest votes at 3%.

Reward/punishment: While the losing chefs separated hand-ground peppercorns and set up the station for the next service, Milly and T took a helicopter tour of Los Angeles.

Service: Regular sous-chefs Andi and James were given the night off, and each of the chefs took a turn acting as Ramsay's sous-chef. Robert Davi, Charo and Winter Ave Zoli were also in attendance for this service. Milly earned praise for detecting scallops that were not seared on one side, but then took over the fish station and made the same mistake, and had troubles with the scallops for the rest of the service. He blamed this on Michelle, who had been working at the fish station, not explaining the station to him. Michelle annoyed the others during her turn as sous chef by constantly shouting "pick it up", though received praise from Chef Ramsay. T called out an order to Nick on the meat station, which he acknowledged. However, when they switched places later, T discovered that Nick had not started the order, which created a lengthy delay. Nick, feeling the brunt of all of his mistakes, faltered on running the pass, but ultimately managed to rally and get the final orders out to the guests. Only Meghan and T had flawless performances both in the kitchen and as sous chefs.

Elimination: The chefs quickly agreed to nominate Nick, but were divided on the second nominee. Milly had a rough service, but T and Meghan did not want to put him up, leaving Michelle to be nominated. Ramsay overruled, nominating Milly for making far more mistakes at his own station, despite being a superior sous chef. Ultimately, Nick was eliminated for deteriorating service performances, but Ramsay praised his overall strong performance in the competition.

Challenge: Ramsay brings the final four to a supermarket where each chef receives a limited budget of $25 and ten minutes inside to find the ingredients to create a good vegetarian dish. After that, they have thirty minutes to use the ingredients they bought to the make their dish for Ramsay. Although all of the chefs struggled (bar Michelle, who had been vegetarian), Meghan wins the challenge with her zucchini angel hair pasta dish - her first challenge win in nine weeks. She later chose T to join her.

Reward/punishment: Meghan and T received a private parasailing view of Newport Beach and a three course dinner at Studio in Laguna Beach. Milly and Michelle had to clean the leaves out of the fountains, sweep the steps, and parking lot, as well as polish the wood in the grand hall by hand. In addition, Ramsay also tasks them to vacuum, shampoo, and clean the red carpet.

Service: Just prior to dinner service, family of the chefs were invited to meet them - Michelle's boyfriend and sister, Meghan's mother, T's girlfriend and daughter, and Milly's girlfriend and son, who Milly had based his challenge dish around. In attendance were Il Volo, Tamara Taylor and Taylor Hicks. Like the previous week, all the chefs had an opportunity to run the pass, with sous chef Andi filling in for the chef running as the leader. However, she would deliberately make errors in order to expose the chefs' weaknesses. Milly ran first, and despite failing to spot crab in a risotto instead of lobster, he received praise for his leadership, and pointed out mistakes the other chefs had made. However, not unlike last week, he struggled when returning to his station, serving a risotto with no cheese and another one that was soupy. Meghan ran next. She was considered a better, if more harsh leader, than Milly, though she also failed to spot sea bass being used instead of halibut. Michelle went next, though was deemed the weakest leader. Despite constantly ordering her team, they paid little attention to her and Ramsay kept reminding her to be more authoritative. Michelle initially spotted sous chef Andi sending up broccoli instead of cauliflower, though later changed her mind upon tasting it, which led Ramsay to again help her. During Michelle's time as chef, T was reprimanded for taking too long on a wellington. T was last to perform as head chef. She led strongly and was the only one to spot her mistake, catching a lamb wellington instead of beef. Ramsay commended the chefs for doing so well and told them all to think about who should be in the final two with them. Meghan voted for Michelle and had votes from T and Michelle, while Milly voted for T.

Pre-challenge: Continued from the last episode, Ramsay introduced Christina Wilson, the winner of Season 10 of Hell's Kitchen. All of them flew out to Vegas for the final challenge.

Challenge: For Meghan & T's final challenge, they both got one hour to create five dishes (one cold appetizer, one hot appetizer, one fish entree, one chicken entree and one beef entree) which would be judged by an array of top chefs who would decide the winner of the challenge. T won the challenge 42-41.

Reward: As the winner of the challenge, T got the first pick of the last eight chefs eliminated. T picked Milly followed by Nick, Adam and last Christine. Meanwhile, Meghan picked Michelle, Alison, and Josh and was left with Randy. This was the first time since Season 8 where every chef who was scheduled to return for the final dinner service was able to do so.

Service: The chef's tables for the final service include Tiffani Thiessen in T's kitchen and Lisa Loeb in Meghan's. In addition, Robert Englund and the finalists' families were also in attendance. Both teams got through the appetizer stage pretty smoothly, despite minor consistency issues with Michelle and Christine. However T's team started slowing down at the entree stage as Adam repeatedly undercooked ribcap, which forced T to switch him with Nick on garnish. However T was forced to put Nick back on garnish again when Adam was not communicating, and delegated Christine to support Adam on garnish after she sent up dry truffle mac. Meghan's team was held back by Randy constantly overcooking the chicken entree. After Meghan caught him putting sliced chicken back in the oven, she switched him with Michelle on desserts. Despite these setbacks, both teams finished their service. This was the first final since season 10 in which a finalist did not throw a chef out of service.

Winner: After service was done Chef Ramsay congratulated both of the contestants on their strong services, and told them that he would have a hard time determine a winner. After analyzing the service and overall performance, he called both of them into his office where he praised both of the finalists for their performance up to that point. Afterwards, he asked them to go to their respective doors where Meghan's door opened making her the 14th winner of Hell's Kitchen, while T took her defeat graciously.