Hell's Kitchen (American season 14)

Season 14 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on March 3, 2015 on Fox. The prize is a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill in Caesars Atlantic City.[1] Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef with Andi Van Willigan and James Avery returning as sous-chefs for both their respective kitchens as well as Marino Monferrato as the maître d'. Executive chef Meghan Gill from Roanoke, Virginia, won the competition, thus becoming the fourteenth winner of Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen
Season 14
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	16
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	March 3 (2015-03-03) – June 9, 2015 (2015-06-09)
Season chronology

This season's head to head finals happened between the third pair of the top two finalists that did not receive any nominations for elimination.

This season, the Blue Team set a new record for the most number of dinner service wins by a team in a single season (discounting season finales and joint victories) with six. It surpassed the previous record of five set by the Blue Team in Seasons 6 and 7 and the Red Team Season 10. The season also had only one joint dinner service loss between the red and blue teams, the fewest such occurrences since season four. This red team also tied a record set by the blue team from Season 10, having been kicked out of the kitchen five times throughout the season. Gill became the eighth winner of the series to avoid nomination throughout the entire season. Gill also set a Hell's Kitchen record with nine consecutive punishments until she finally won the last challenge of the season, a distinction previously shared by Season 4 runner-up Louis Petrozza, Season 11 third place finisher Jon Scallion, sixth- and seventh-place finishers Zach Womack and Anthony Rodriguez, Season 12 second runner-up Melanie Finch, and lastly, Season 13 finisher Sade Dancy, who had seven each.

Despite the blue team, which started with all men, setting a new record for the most number of dinner service wins by a team in a single season, this was the third season to feature two women in the finale (following seasons two and eleven), the first season to have all women in the top three, and the second season that neither the winner nor runner-up was nominated once for elimination, after season seven. Sixth-place chef Josh Trovato ties with Season 12's Michael DeMarco (discounting the "Cook For Your Life" challenge in Episode 9) for the longest consecutive streak of nominations. In further extension, this is the first season since Season 7 that did not have any episodes ending in cliffhanger before elimination, and final season to feature tradition double elimination before finals, until it's back in season 18.

Both teams each had separate, unusual distinctions during the signature dish challenge. The Blue team became the first team in Hell's Kitchen history to receive approval for every dish from Ramsay as all the men received a score of 3 or 4. The Red team's signature dishes eventually became a near perfect predictor for the order of elimination. The three members who received 1 (Chrissa, Mieka and Monique) were the first three women to be eliminated and the two chefs receiving 5 (T and Meghan) were the two finalists. The only anomaly was Alison (who scored the Red team's lone 3) surviving longer than two of her teammates who scored 4 (Sarah and Christine).

This season also set a record for most participants invited to participate in Hell's Kitchen a second time (six), with four in Season 17 and two on Season 18.

Opening sequence

The intro featured the chefs in a kitchen-themed jungle, which was revealed at the end of the sequence that it all took place inside the pot.

Chefs

Eighteen chefs competed for the head chef position in season 14.[2]

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown	Result
Meghan Gill	28	Executive Chef	Roanoke, Virginia	Winner
Torrece "T" Gregoire[lower-alpha 1]	31	Line Cook	Atlanta, Georgia	Runner-Up
Michelle Tribble[lower-alpha 2]	22	Line Cook	Dallas, Texas	Eliminated before Finals
Emili "Milly" Medley[lower-alpha 3]	33	Executive Chef	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nicholas "Nick" Peters Bond[lower-alpha 4]	25	Private Chef	Stoneham, Massachusetts	Eliminated after 13th Service
Joshua "Josh" Trovato[lower-alpha 5]	24	Chef De Cuisine	Brooklyn, New York	Eliminated after 12th Service
Alison Rivera	27	Sous Chef	Manhattan, New York	Eliminated before Black Jackets
Randolph "Randy" Bell	45	Line Cook	Nashville, Tennessee	Eliminated after 10th Service
Christine Hazel	30	Banquet Chef	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Eliminated after Cook For Your life
Adam Livow	31	Amusement Park Chef	Freehold, New Jersey	Eliminated after 8th Service
Bret Hauser[lower-alpha 6]	30	Sous Chef	Delray Beach, Florida	Left before 8th Service
Sarah Baumert	27	Chef Instructor	Dallas, Texas	Eliminated after 7th Service
Brendan Pelley	34	Executive Chef	Bedford, Massachusetts	Eliminated after 6th Service
Monique Booker	23	Line Cook	Lynn, Massachusetts	Eliminated after 5th Service
Michelle "Mieka" Houser Harris[3]	25	Sous Chef	Olney, Maryland	Eliminated after 4th Service
Michael Dussault	38	Senior Center Chef	Hartford, Connecticut	Eliminated after 3rd Service
Cameron Spagnolo	33	Banquet Chef	Jersey City, New Jersey	Eliminated after 2nd Service
Chrissa Schmerler	34	Food Truck Chef/Owner	Bellmore, New York	Eliminated after 1st Service

Notes

1. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 18.
2. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 17, winning the season.
3. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 17.
4. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 17.
5. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 17.
6. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 18.

Contestant progress

					Original teams										1st Switch		Individual			Final
No.	Chef				1401	1402	1403	1404	1405	1406	1407	1408	1409	1410	1411	1412	1413	1414	1415	1416
1				Meghan	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	WIN	WIN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	WINNER
2				T	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	RUNNER-UP
3			Michelle		LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	WIN	NOM	LOSE	NOM	NOM[n 1]	OUT
4			Milly		WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	IN	LOSE	WIN	WIN	IN	NOM[n 2]	OUT
5			Nick		WIN	LOSE	NOM	WIN	WIN	NOM	WIN	LOSE	IN	LOSE	WIN	WIN	IN	OUT
6			Josh		WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOM[n 2]	IN	NOM	NOM	NOM	OUT
7		Alison			LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	WIN	LOSE	OUT
8		Randy			WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOM	NOM[n 3]	NOM	OUT[n 4]
9	Christine				NOM[n 2]	WIN	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	WIN	OUT[n 5]
10	Adam				WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	OUT
11	Bret				WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LEFT[n 6]
12	Sarah				LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	NOM	WIN	OUT
13	Brendan				WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	OUT
14	Monique				NOM	WIN	LOSE	NOM	OUT
15	Mieka				LOSE	WIN	NOM	OUT
16	Michael				WIN	NOM	OUT
17	Cameron				WIN	OUT
18	Chrissa				OUT

Keywords WIN = Won the dinner service LOSE = Lost the dinner service BoB = Best of the Best, usually exempt from nomination BoW = Best of the Worst, sometimes exempt from nomination IN = not nominated for elimination NOM = nominated for elimination OUT = eliminated LEFT = withdrew from competition

Color key      Chef was eliminated after nomination      Chef was eliminated without nomination      Chef was eliminated during service      Chef withdrew from the competition      Chef was retained after nomination      The winner of Hell's Kitchen      The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen

Notes

1. Although nominated, chef was not called down by Ramsay
2. Chef was nominated by Ramsay
3. Chef participated in the "Cook for your life" challenge
4. Chef was eliminated despite being on the winning team
5. Chef was eliminated in the "Cook for your life" challenge
6. Chef sustained an injury and was not allowed to continue

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original air date	US viewers (millions)
203	1	"18 Chefs Compete"	March 3, 2015 (2015-03-03)	4.09[4]
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. The women took the lead in the next round as Nick's pan-seared duck breast got 3 points, but Michelle's huevos rancheros got 4 points. The men quickly gained the lead in the next round, as Mieka's shrimp cake with peach salsa was "all bad" receiving 1 point, but Randy's raspberry bourbon barbeque salmon got 3 points. The women retook the lead as 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, giving the men a 1-point lead. The men kept the lead as Alison's pan-seared red snapper got 3 points, but Adam's lamb chops got 4 points, though in the next round the women went from 2 points behind to 1 point behind as 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 having a 1-point lead, Bret's bone in veal chop saltimbocca got 3 points, and lastly Monique's pasta was panned 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, which earned her 1 out of 5 points. 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 to help Sarah on garnish instead of Chrissa, as she actually knew what to do to help Sarah. Despite this, early appetizers got out quickly thanks to Mieka and Michelle on the fish station. In the blue kitchen, Cameron had problems with his seasoning of the risotto, until Nick came and assisted him, which helped to send out risottos. Michael also had problems on the scallops for the first table, as he boiled them instead of searing them. This angered Ramsay, as he had taken an awful long amount of time to cook them, then sending them out wrong, but Michael rebounded. On entrees, Bret and Milly on the meat station 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 as Christine and Monique were unable to cook an order of pork and lamb correctly, with the lamb being raw on their first attempt, and then it was raw again on the second attempt, because Monique didn't know her oven wasn't on, but she believed it was. Furthermore, the pork was dry. On their last attempt they finally managed to cook the lamb correctly; however, the pork was now raw, which infuriated Ramsay as there were now six people on the meat station at this point - Alison, Christine, Meghan, Mieka, Monique and T, yet they were still not able to push it out, forcing Ramsay to eject 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, but were stopped by Ramsay on the stairs, where they were told they had "definitely" lost. He told them to come up with 2 nominees for elimination. During deliberation, Christine and Monique were first pointed out for their mistakes on the meat station, and the women originally decided to nominate them, but Chrissa quickly joined the discussion as a potential nominee, due to her team feeling she was out of her element, and being the worst cook on the team. This was not helped by the fact that as the women were sitting down discussing possible nominees, Chrissa tried to make coffee, only to break a glass, which led the women to believe she was not taking her place in Hell's Kitchen seriously. Alison revealed the nominations as Monique for the first nominee and Chrissa as the second. Ramsay also personally called out Christine for nomination, due to her poor performance on the meat station. After hearing each of their pleas, he sent Monique back in line (believing she was passionate, despite making mistakes) and 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. Ramsay's comment: "There is nothing more terrifying to Chrissa than jumping off a building. But there is nothing more terrifying to me than the thought of having her as my next head chef."
204	2	"17 Chefs Compete"	March 10, 2015 (2015-03-10)	3.52[5]
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 (the men having one team of three since they had an extra member) then had to present ten perfect crab cake dishes after they shucked, sautéed, and plated them. Despite the men's head-start, the women ultimately defeated them by presenting 10 dishes, while the men had only managed 7 due to the duo of Micheal and Bret only presenting one plate because of Micheal's sluggishness. T and Michelle were the stand-out performers, single-handedly making four out of the women's ten dishes, the last of which was considered to be "perfectly cooked" 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, feeling that he was the best chef there and it was his place to tell the others what to do. Josh told him, in a very blunt manner, 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, and Meghan advised Christine to keep watch over Mieka during service Service: Guests in attendance were Jai Rodriguez, and Workaholics actors Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine and Anders Holm. Milly did well on hot appetizers, whilst Michael, on cold appetizers, sent out a beet salad when it wasn't on the ticket. However, later during dinner service, the men's scallops were continuously getting sent back for being too raw due to Cameron, which eventually made Ramsay come over to the station and 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 went on to make more mistakes on the entrees, forcing Ramsay to make them eat their incorrectly-cooked dishes, whilst Josh did well on the meat station. Michael took over the station in the meantime, but further confusion occurred when Brendan and Cameron took control again, leading to all three of them being thrown out. Minutes later, the rest of team was ejected after Ramsay discovered that none of the men actually knew 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 felt T was being overbearing. They started having trouble on the entrees however; Alison and Michelle were supposed to be working together but their constant bickering meant they weren’t communicating well and were giving conflicting reports to Chef Ramsay, meaning that T ended up having to step in and supervise that station as well. Mieka also got completely overwhelmed on the garnish station and quickly fell behind which led her to have communication problems with the other stations. Thankfully, Meghan managed to get Mieka back on track and successfully kept the garnish station from sinking the kitchen. Eventually, the team rallied and were able to complete their dinner service. The women were clear winners, and the men had to come up with two people for elimination. Elimination: Cameron was immediately voted as the first nominee, but the men had problems deciding between Brendan and Michael as the second nominee. In the end, they picked Michael, who was considered the slowest and the weaker chef. After deliberation, Ramsay ultimately eliminated Cameron for his poor performance on the fish station, and for admitting he was intimidated by Ramsay during service. Ramsay's comment: "Cameron was too intimidated to perform when I was watching him. So I did him a favor and made sure that he doesn't have to be around me anymore."
205	3	"16 Chefs Compete"	March 17, 2015 (2015-03-17)	3.79[6]
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. Each member of the pair cooked their own dish, then faced off against their counterparts on the other team, with Ramsay and guest judge Michael Cimarusti awarding 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. Chef 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 a weak performance from Christine and Mieka on the appetizer station, while T also struggled somewhat with the flatbread pizzas, and Alison and Monique had trouble getting the scallops out, with both blaming each other for their problems. After Christine and Mieka brought up a dry risotto and overcooked pasta on the final table of appetizers, and Sarah only further enraged Ramsay by asking (under her breath) if they could try again, the entire team was ejected. Things ran a little better in the blue kitchen, although one plate of scallops were returned with a piece of plastic in the salad with had been made by Adam. Michael 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. Things quickly went wrong on the entrees however, as Nick twice sent up raw pork, and then argued with Chef Ramsay when he rejected it. The team managed to get a few more tables of entrees out, but then Michael brought up the garnishes for a rack of lamb far too early. Nick, not wanting to further anger Chef Ramsay, brought up the lamb, but as the lamb turned out to be almost totally raw, he only succeeded in getting the entire team thrown out. Elimination: For the first time ever in the history of Hell's Kitchen, Chef Ramsay went up to the dorms, where he informed them that both teams had lost, the only service this season that both teams lost since season 2, and he wanted two people for elimination from each team. The women nominated Christine and Mieka as a result of their struggles on appetizers, while the men nominated Michael and Nick for their troubles on their respective stations. For a moment, they considered nominating Adam for his plastic in the scallop salad, but stuck to their original consensus. After hearing each of the contestants explain why they should stay, Chef Ramsay chose to eliminate Michael for being a consistently poor performer, and especially because of his mistake with the hot pan, which he considered proof that Michael was dangerously incompetent and not fit to work in Hell's Kitchen, or become his next head chef. 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. Ramsay's comment: "Fortunately for Michael, he can go back to his job at the senior center. Unfortunately for his residents, it's as the chef."
206	4	"15 Chefs Compete"	March 24, 2015 (2015-03-24)	3.77[7]
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. Two chefs from each team would prepare each dish, but Randy would go solo, as the men had 7 chefs. 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. The pizzas were first up, and Bret earned the first two points for his pizza, narrowly defeating Michelle's more simplistic pizza. In the burgers, Meghan's burger easily defeated Randy's dry, over-cooked and over-spicy burger, tying the scores, before the men retook the lead as Josh's traditional mac and cheese beat out Alison's bizarre, and undercooked, mac and cheese in a bun. In the final round, Brendan's spaghetti carbonara got praise from the judges, but Sarah's seemingly complicated spaghetti, lobster and prosciutto dish was deemed outstanding, not only winning the points, but being used as a tie-breaker and resulting in the women winning their third successive challenge. The men were visibly distraught at this, but Chef Ramsay was unsympathetic and openly ridiculed them, especially Bret, who angrily yelled out a stream of profanities after the decision was announced. 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 this service it was family night, meaning that many of the comfort foods cooked in the previous challenge were on the menu. The men got off to a poor start firstly when Brendan cooked a risotto that was far too small, and then Bret attempted to recycle that risotto into a new one, causing Ramsay to angrily threaten 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. A major speed bump then occurred when Ramsay was presented with steaks and salmon that were both overcooked, resulting in him forcing the entire team to eat them. After that, the blue team were able to complete service, and while Ramsay made it clear that he was not happy with their performance, he decided to spare them from nominating anyone for elimination. The women also had some initial problems on appetizers, including Sarah burning the scallops and Michelle needlessly adding extra salt to Alison's mac and cheese, rendering it inedible, but otherwise got through the appetizer stage without trouble. However, things rapidly fell apart during entrees thanks to a dismal performance from Mieka and Monique on the meat station, who repeatedly served up raw wellingtons and steaks. This eventually resulted in Mieka constantly asking the others their opinions on the temperature of a New York strip, which allowed it to cook so long 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 in the kitchen that night, T suggested the team into nominating Monique and Sarah to try to manipulate Ramsay into eliminating Monique, who they believed was a disruptive influence and kept the team from succeeding. When Ramsay was given the nominations, Monique interjected and revealed the team's plan to rig the elimination, but Ramsay called her and Sarah out anyway. After hearing the pleas from both Monique and Sarah he decided to overrule the nominations and eliminated Mieka for struggling on three straight services as well as he felt that she had no confidence in herself and she had given up. Ramsay's comment: "You've heard of the saying 'the Meek shall inherit the earth'. Well, the Mieka shall not inherit the position as my next head chef."
207	5	"14 Chefs Compete"	March 31, 2015 (2015-03-31)	3.35[8]
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. The chosen chef 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. Monique and Nick faced off first with grilled cheese sandwiches, and Nick's sandwich easily beat out Monique's bland and overly simplistic sandwich. Milly was worried about his enchiladas, but Ramsay liked them; however, Meghan's enchiladas were judged to be truly outstanding and won the point. Adam and Christine both earned a point for their cordon bleu dishes, as did Josh and Michelle with their manicottis. 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. On the final round, T clinched the winning point for her calzone; both her dish and Bret's were deemed to be good, but Bret's calzone had noticeably 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 the appetizer section, but were soon backed up by Monique constantly serving bland, under-cooked garnishes. Meghan jumped on the garnish section, but in her absence Sarah quickly fell apart handling the remaining appetizers, and Christine also had to be repeatedly told how to cook the salmon, and yet still sent it up raw. Ramsay brought the team into the pantry to give them a final warning, only for Christine's next order of salmon to turn out to be burnt, leading to the whole team being ejected. The men got off to a slower start due to Adam having initial problems with the risotto, but he soon got it together and got the remaining appetizers out without trouble. Bret also overcooked their first order of salmon, but likewise got his remaining orders out correctly. The main problem faced by the team was Brendan's weak performance on the meat station, as he struggled to give the other chefs correct times, and ended up holding up the kitchen for fifteen minutes while waiting for a rack of lamb to cook. Despite this, the team was eventually able to complete service, and were named the winners for the second week 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, but were divided between Sarah and Christine as the second. Despite Christine being considered more directly at fault for the service's failure, the women decided to nominate Sarah along with Monique, feeling that she would have done even worse than Christine without Meghan's close supervision. While Ramsay felt that Sarah was falling apart and did not have the strength of character needed to compete in Hell's Kitchen, he eliminated Monique for her refusal to admit any of the mistakes she made, being totally shunned by her team, consistently poor performances, and lack of improvement over five services. Ramsay's comment: "Monique acted like she was the victim, but the real victim was anyone who had to eat her food tonight."
208	6	"13 Chefs Compete"	April 7, 2015 (2015-04-07)	3.50 [9]
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 preparing the salads, before both 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 their early troubles ultimately proved costly as, resulting in the men winning 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. Nick had a little reunion with his ex-girlfriend who was serving the blue team (much to the surprise of the other men, as Nick is openly gay). Although Ramsay was embarrassed by their loss, he tasked the women to detail and clean the firetruck in addition to prepping 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, and while the other members (especially Alison) felt somewhat insulted by the insinuation that they were less talented and unworthy of working with Meghan, 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.[10] 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's constantly serving up undercooked scallops, and things got worse on the entrees, as he and Brendan couldn't get any orders of salmon out correctly. This in turn caused Josh to struggle to time his meat entrees correctly, and caused him to serve up raw wellingtons and racks of lamb. Further mistakes from the trio caused them to all be thrown out of service, with Bret and Milly taking over the fish, and Randy taking over the meat; after this, they rallied and successfully finished service, with Randy doing well on meat earning praise from Ramsay. On the red side, Christine got the team off to a bad start by serving a bland, undercooked risotto, while Sarah also struggled to get the garnishes out; as a result, 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 blue team 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. When Chef Ramsay asked the two nominees to justify why they should stay, Nick admitted fault on not taking control of the station from Brendan sooner, but Brendan refused to admit being directly at fault and instead attempted to blame Adam (on garnish) and Nick for not helping him when he started falling apart on the fish station. This, along with his consistently mediocre performances during his time up to this point in Hell's Kitchen resulted in Ramsay eliminating him. Ramsay's comment: "Brendan considers himself a well-read chef. Unfortunately, it's only his books that have a spine."
209	7	"12 Chefs Compete"	April 14, 2015 (2015-04-14)	3.63[11]
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, with whichever team gets the most points winning. Alison and Josh faced off first with lamb dishes, and Alison earned 6 points for an otherwise decent dish that was a little overcooked; conversely, Josh's dish was so severely undercooked that Chefs Ramsay and Psilakis refused to taste it, earning him the lowest possible score of 2 points by default. Bret's prawn dish then took the lead, scoring 8 points, while Michelle's unusual choice of prawns and kiwi fruit sauce earned her just 3 points. The lead swung back to the women on the next round, as Meghan earned 9 points for her squid dish, beating Milly (who only got 6 points) for the third time in a challenge. Randy's chicken dish reclaimed the lead again, earning a perfect 10 points(despite having no Greek cuisine experience), and outshining T, who still got a respectable 7 points. Adam retained the lead with his pork dish, getting another 10 points, though the 8 points earned by Christine 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 Mabelynn Capeluj 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 Mabelynn Capeluj, Erik Palladino was also a guest for this service. Josh and Michelle were assigned tableside service, preparing an octopus appetizer. The blue team had a generally trouble-free service, getting through the appetizers without any major problems thanks to Nick on appetizers, but having a few minor problems on the entrees such as Randy adding too much cream to mashed potatoes and then trying to deny being responsible for it (causing a lengthy argument among the team), Milly serving poorly-sliced wellingtons, and Adam using 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 the team was stalled early on when Alison repeatedly made mistakes on the fish station, including serving raw lobster and burning her poaching butter, forcing her to make a new batch and further holding up the team. She eventually rebounded and the team completed appetizers without too many more problems, but they soon fell apart on the entrees as a result of terrible performances by Sarah on the meat station and Christine on the garnishes. Christine served raw and then burnt eggplant, and severely over-seasoned the lentils, even after Meghan jumped in to help her, while Sarah served raw wellingtons and overcooked lamb, then another overcooked order of lamb along with burnt chicken. With the blue team having finished service and the women still having eight tables left to go, Chef Ramsay ejected the women, telling them to nominate two people for elimination, before calling in the men to finish their service. This tied with Season 10's blue team to get kicked out as a whole from service happening 5 times. Elimination: The women quickly agreed on nominating Sarah and Christine, though briefly gave consideration to nominating Alison for her early problems on the fish station and not doing enough to help out Christine. While pleading the case for her survival, Sarah claimed that no one on the team had bothered to help her (even though T actually did try to assist her). 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, on the grounds that while he had seen much potential in her earlier in the season, he could not overlook her succession of terrible performances in service. Ramsay's comment: "Sarah kept telling me she was here to learn. Unfortunately for her, I'm not looking for learners, I'm looking for leaders."
210	8	"11 Chefs Compete"	April 21, 2015 (2015-04-21)	3.74[12]
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 with cooking it was announced the judges were only tasting 3 dishes from each team (one beer, one wine, one liquor). Michelle impressed with her chocolate beer soufflé scoring 11 points out of 15, while Nick still earned a respectable 10 out of 15 points for his team with his sweet potato donut in a candy bacon crumble 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, opening the door for Josh to take the victory with his grilled pork dish that got 11 points. The final score was 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 (for the second time this season), and told him he could not continue in the competition as it could lead to permanent back injuries, thus eliminating a teary-eyed Bret from Hell's Kitchen, but Ramsay told him to stay strong and get better. While not explicitly mentioned, Ramsay did not take Bret's jacket. Bret would return to Hell's Kitchen for Season 18. Service: Chef's tables were featured during gastro-pub night. The men will have 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 overwhelmed on the appetizer station 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 who suffered from a major communication breakdown between Adam on the meat station and Randy on the fish station as they had problems with timing serving raw and overcooked fish and meat all night until Ramsay sent the red kitchen in to finish their service and asked the men to go up in the dorms and nominate two people from nomination. Elimination: The men quickly decided on Adam and Randy due to their problems on their respective stations although both Adam and Nick tried to get Josh nominated for not helping the meat station when it started going down in flames, however when they were at the elimination ceremony and had nominated Adam and Randy. Ramsay then nominates Josh based on the same thing, that he didn't take any initiative to try to save the meat station. 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. Ramsay's comment: "Bret's competition may have ended in the bathroom today, but it was Adam's failure on the meat station that flushed his dream down the toilet."
211	9	"9 Chefs Compete"	April 28, 2015 (2015-04-28)	3.25[13]
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 his two 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 meat, she chose alligator. Alison and Nick are up first with their Elk dishes. While Nick gets complimented on his presentation, he only earns 6 points out of 15, as his dish is way under-seasoned. Alison got panned for her presentation, but still managed to earn 8 points for her team. Next up was the wild boar dishes made by Meghan and Josh. Meghan's dish was deemed to be to safe, earning 8 points for her team while Josh's dish was undercooked, and the cauliflower over-powered the rest of the dish earning him 7 points for his team. T and Milly presented their alligator dishes. Milly's dish earned a decent 9 points, despite being a little under-seasoned, and T earned 11 points. In the last round Christine and Randy were up for their team with their take on ostrich. Christine only earned 6 points as her meat was very bland and deemed kind of safe, opening up for Randy to win it for his team with his ostrich burger scoring a 12 points ending the final score at 34–33 to the men. 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 that is 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. Ramsay's comment: "Christine clearly didn't have the faith and confidence of her team. After giving her a chance to cook for her life, she didn't do enough to change their mind or mine."
212	10	"8 Chefs Compete"	May 5, 2015 (2015-05-05)	3.75[14]
Team challenge: The teams were cooking for Calabasas High School's homecoming dinner where the theme for the homecoming party was Mardi Gras. Both teams had 35 minutes to create three meals for the homecoming committee one seafood appetizer, one chicken entrée and beef entrée. For the appetizer Milly's deep-fried stuffed shrimp with lobster and crab meat won over Alison and T's jalapeños grits with cheese & lobster. For the chicken entree Meghan won with her fresh-chived fettuccine with cream sauce and sausage over Randy's blackened chicken pasta, mostly because she made fresh pasta for the dish. With a tie it all came down to the beef entree where Nick and Josh clinched the victory for the blue team with their deep fried filet with chicken over Michelle's more traditional take on filet, marking the men's 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 with decorating the dining room to match the theme of the homecoming, along with making necklaces for every of the 200 guests from scratch. During the punishment, Michelle and T butted heads as T felt that Michelle was trying to fit in with the homecoming committee and also worried too much about what she 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 at the start of the service and Michelle was slow at serving the sliders to Ramsay at an otherwise complete order, however both of them recovered quickly and the rest of the appetizers went without incident. The blue team also had their fair share of problems at appetizers as Josh served alcoholic risotto and then undercooked pasta, but after that the appetizers went without incident. When it came time to 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, then T overcooked the red snapper for a table but quickly recovered. Lastly 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 announced that the red team did a little better which made them the winner of the service. 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 due to his poor performance on the appetizer station and Randy due to his mediocre performance in service. When Ramsay asked Josh who he thought was the weakest he openly said that he felt that Nick was the weakest cook on the team and 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 tell him that he would join the red team while Meghan would switch over to the men's team as he felt they were lacking a leader and he also felt that she could whip them into shape. Ramsay's comment: "This was the first time I've seen Josh and Randy perform that poorly. So, I decided to give them a second chance, hopefully, having new teammates would ensure that never happens again."
213	11	"8 Chefs Compete Again"	May 12, 2015 (2015-05-12)	3.26[15]
Team challenge: The teams participated in the annual blind taste test, where each chef should try to identify ingredients only by taste and nothing else, the dunk-tanks were also back from season thirteen. Milly scored an impressive perfect 4 out of 4 ingredients (only done once before by Justin Antiorio in Season 10), and Meghan scored 3, but Nick and Randy both only identified 1. For the red team, Josh scored 3, while the others each scored 2. With the score tied 9–9, Josh and Milly (who had scored the highest for their respective teams) 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 a course where they should lead their team through it to see who had leadership abilities. The first course was the risotto, by Alison and Randy. Alison got her course 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 took 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 suffered a complete meltdown because they overcooked all of their tuna (mostly due to Josh ignoring Alison's warnings that it was going to be overcooked) and was forced to go into the blue kitchen to retrieve some of their leftover tuna. 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 (much to his disagreement, as he felt it was the smoothest course, even though it hadn't been) 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 that he felt that he didn't bounce back after his sub-par leader performance 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. Ramsay's comment: "I loved Randy's work ethic. Unfortunately, his positive attitude couldn't camouflage his lack of experience."
214	12	"7 Chefs Compete"	May 19, 2015 (2015-05-19)	3.51[16]
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 steak, but after failures from Milly with his New York strip steak and Josh with his porterhouse steak, Meghan managed to dethrone T with her own porterhouse steak. Alison's rib eye steak and Nick's New York strip steak also missed the mark. But ultimately, Michelle dethroned 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 that'll be 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 for the merger into one team. Jake Steinfeld and Jerry Hairston, Jr. were in attendance. Michelle's winning challenge dish was among the dishes served at this service. The blue team got off to a strong start on their appetizers, while Michelle served watery capellini for the red team. Nick nearly sent out scorched, dried salmon for the blue team's entrees. For the red team, Alison undercooked filet and salmon due to her inexperience on the fish station, and Josh slowed the team down by struggling with the garnish station. All this resulted in Ramsay sending out half of one table's order before the other half was finished. Meghan made a rare mistake for her when she sent out a raw New York strip steak for the blue team (mainly due to the fact she had many orders) but recovered quickly. Alison continued making her mistakes with the salmon on the red team, while Josh continued making his own mistakes on the garnish. The blue team finally managed to complete their final orders with no problems at all, and Ramsay immediately rewarded Meghan, Milly, and Nick with a "dessert" of their new black jackets. When Alison continued making mistakes with the red team's salmon, Ramsay finally removed her from the fish station and put T on it instead, which sped their service back up again. He also quickly put the former members of the blue team to work in helping the red team finish up their service. In the end, the blue team won and were told to join the red team in coming up with two people for elimination. Elimination: The chefs decided that the choices for elimination would be from among Alison for her failures with the filet and the salmon, Michelle for her one mistake with the capellini, and Josh for his mistake with the garnish and his overall tendency to get flustered and frazzled in the kitchen. In the end, the chefs agreed on nominating Josh and Alison. Ramsay surprised the chefs by calling Michelle forward, but she herself was surprised when Ramsay gave her a black jacket. He then called up T and gave her a black jacket, as well, for being the only red team member to have a perfect service for the night. Ramsay then called Josh and Alison forward. Alison admitted to her mistakes, but asked Ramsay to consider her past weeks of consistency. Josh simply assured Ramsay that he could be a leader and wanted another chance to show him that. Ramsay ultimately chose to eliminate Alison for her failures on the fish station, although acknowledging her flashes of brilliance, before giving Josh the final black jacket, much to the other chefs' (especially Nick's) chagrin. Ramsay's comment: "Alison had a strong voice in the kitchen. Unfortunately, she couldn't talk her way into a black jacket."
215	13	"6 Chefs Compete"	May 19, 2015 (2015-05-19)	3.51[16]
Challenge: The chefs participated in the "taste it, now make it" challenge. The team of Nick and Michelle won by correctly identifying the protein (sea bass) and the seasoning of the broth (soy). The team of Josh and Meghan is quickly eliminated for misidentifying the sea bass as halibut, and the team of Milly and T is eliminated soon after for misidentifying 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 and then Ramsay had 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 guest for the chef's table. Michelle immediately started out with a slight mistake by serving two Caesar salads on plates rather than in bowls. Meghan did well with the risottos for the hot appetizers, but Nick derailed her progress by adding cold lobster tails to them. When it was time to serve the chef's table, Michelle was slower in cooking tuna than Meghan was in cooking risotto, and even with her slowness, she nearly served cold tuna. When the entrees started, Josh quickly grew frazzled and, in his confusion, nearly burned their first order. He also fell behind T when she quickly walked up the salmon, and he had not finished the lamb. He lied that T had not let him know that 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 steak 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. While Josh tried to persuade the team to nominate Nick due to his cold lobster tail, the team decided to nominate Josh, due to him causing confusion for the rest of the team during dinner service and Michelle as the second nominee due to her minor mistakes on the appetizers, as well as her slower speed compared to the others in the kitchen. After much thought, Ramsay decided, much to the other chefs' (especially Nick's) relief and delight, to finally eliminate Josh due to his long downward spiral, but praised him for his passion as well for bouncing back on this service after a string of bad services. Ramsay's comment: "Josh had great passion and a strong service tonight. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late."
216	14	"5 Chefs Compete"	May 26, 2015 (2015-05-26)	3.33[17]
Challenge: The chefs had 45 minutes to make small plate 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 a whole 55% of the guests preferring his dish over the others (the closest person to him was Meghan who only earned 18% of the votes) and when asked who he wanted to join him on his reward he chose T, even though she had the dish with the fewest votes of only 3% preferring it. 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, being the only one not to explain her station to Milly. 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 himself faltered on running the pass as a result of feeling the brunt of all of his mistakes, 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 on nominating Nick, but were divided as to who else should be nominated. Milly had a rough service, but T and Meghan did not want to put him up, so Michelle was selected by process of elimination. Ramsay was shocked to hear that Michelle had been nominated, and scolded the chefs for making a choice that had obviously sounded personal and thus reflected poorly on them, as he felt that Milly had made far more mistakes, despite being a superior sous chef. He called Nick and Milly forward. Nick had made some serious errors during services, which led to his elimination. However, Ramsay praised his overall strong performance in the competition. Ramsay's comment: "Having the remaining black jackets work as my sous chefs was an eye-opening experience. Unfortunately for Nick, it helped me see he's not the leader I'm looking for."
217	15	"4 Chefs Compete"	June 2, 2015 (2015-06-02)	3.28[18]
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, California and a three course dinner at Studio in Laguna Beach. Milly and Michelle have to clean the leaves out of the fountains, sweep the steps, and parking lot, as well as hand polishing the wood in the grand hall. 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 at being head chef, 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, similar to a mistake she made during the challenge two episodes prior. Michelle went next, though was deemed the weakest leader. Despite constantly ordering her team, they paid little attention to her and Chef 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. Her solid leadership meant she was deemed a good leader, and she was the only one to spot her mistake, catching a lamb wellington instead of beef. Ramsay commended the chefs for doing so well, though told them all to think about who should be in the final two. In addition to a vote each for themselves, Meghan also had votes from T and Michelle, with only Milly voting against her. Elimination: Ramsay asked each chef who they believed did not deserve to progress. Milly said Michelle, Michelle said T, T said Milly, and Meghan voted against Milly and T. Milly was the first to be eliminated, though he received praise from Chef Ramsay. On his emotional exit, a teary-eyed Milly wished good luck to the other chefs. His exit also marked the first time that there was an all-female final three. Ramsay proceeded to say that Meghan, who had been "rock solid", was the first finalist. Ramsay was left with a decision between T and Michelle, and in the end, he chose to have T compete against Meghan in the final. Michelle was praised, however, as she was the youngest chef in the competition and she had beaten out people with much more experience than she. After elimination, Ramsay praised the two finalists. He introduced a mystery figure behind a door, before the show ended in a cliffhanger.
218	16	"Winner Chosen"	June 9, 2015 (2015-06-09)	3.42[19]
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 ended up winning the last challenge 42-41. Reward: As the winner of the challenge, T got the first pick of the last eight chefs eliminated. T’s first pick was 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 served up undercooked meat, 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 also had some hiccups during service, as Randy constantly overcooked 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. Ramsay's comment: "Meghan has every quality I look for in a head chef. She is passionate, determined and has an amazing palate. But most importantly, Meghan is a born leader who makes every chef in the kitchen better. Talent like hers comes along very rarely and I have no doubt she'll be a great success in Atlantic City."

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

The fourteenth-season premiere of Hell's Kitchen premiered to an audience of 4.09 million, 0.18 million lower than last season's premiere, but up 0.49 million from season 13's finale.

No.	Episode	Original air date	Rating/share 18–49	U.S viewers (million)	Source(s)
1	"18 Chefs Compete"	March 3, 2015	1.4/5	4.09	[4]
2	"17 Chefs Compete"	March 10, 2015	1.3/4	3.52	[5]
3	"16 Chefs Compete"	March 17, 2015	1.3/5	3.79	[6]
4	"15 Chefs Compete"	March 24, 2015	1.3/4	3.77	[7]
5	"14 Chefs Compete"	March 31, 2015	1.2/4	3.35	[8]
6	"13 Chefs Compete"	April 7, 2015	1.2/4	3.50	[9]
7	"12 Chefs Compete"	April 14, 2015	1.3/4	3.63	[11]
8	"11 Chefs Compete"	April 21, 2015	1.2/4	3.74	[12]
9	"9 Chefs Compete"	April 28, 2015	1.1/4	3.25	[13]
10	"8 Chefs Compete"	May 5, 2015	1.2/4	3.75	[14]
11	"8 Chefs Compete Again"	May 12, 2015	1.2/4	3.26	[15]
12	"7 Chefs Compete"	May 19, 2015	1.3/5	3.51	[16]
13	"6 Chefs Compete"		1.3/4
14	"5 Chefs Compete"	May 26, 2015	1.1/3	3.33	[17]
15	"4 Chefs Compete"	June 2, 2015	1.1/4	3.28	[18]
16	"Winner Chosen"	June 9, 2015	1.1/3	3.42	[19]

References

1. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/life/meghan-gill-wins-hell-s-kitchen-to-head-gordon-ramsay/article_e0224dfc-0ec2-11e5-986f-ffdc9f28d554.html
2. "Meet the 18 Competitors for Season 14 of Hell's Kitchen". Facebook. August 15, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
3. "Life After 'Hell's Kitchen'". Bethesda Magazine. January 15, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
4. Bibel, Sara (March 4, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'Chicago Fire' Adjusted Down; No Adjustment to 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
5. Kondolojy, Amanda (March 11, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Voice', 'NCIS', 'Fresh Off The Boat', 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' & 'Person of Interest' Adjusted Up.'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
6. Bibel, Sara (March 18, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash' & 'The Voice' Adjusted Up; 'iZombie' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
7. Kondolojy, Amanda (March 25, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Voice', 'The Flash', & 'The Mindy Project' Adjusted Up; 'NCIS: New Orleans' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
8. "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'Forever' & 'NCIS' Adjusted Up - Ratings - TVbytheNumbers.Zap2it.com". TVbytheNumbers.
9. Kondolojy, Amanda (April 8, 2015). "FEATURED Tuesday Final Ratings: 'NCIS: New Orleans' Adjusted Up; No Adjustment for 'Forever', 'New Girl' or 'Weird Loners'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy-6JZ1ivr4
11. Bibel, Sara (April 15, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'NCIS', 'The Voice', 'Fresh Off The Boat', 'Hell's Kitchen' & 'Person of Interest' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
12. Kondolojy, Amanda (April 22, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', 'Undateable', 'The Voice' & 'Hell's Kitchen' Adjusted Up; 'iZombie' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
13. Bibel, Sara (April 29, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.', 'The Voice', 'NCIS', 'NCIS: New Orleans', & 'Chicago Fire' Adjusted Up; 'One Big Happy' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
14. Kondolojy, Amanda (May 6, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Voice' Adjusted Up; 'iZombie' Adjusted Down + No Adjustment for 'The Flash' or 'Person of Interest'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
15. Bibel, Sara (May 13, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'NCIS', & 'American Idol' Adjusted Up; 'iZombie' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
16. Kondolojy, Amanda (May 20, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'The Flash', 'The Voice' & 'Hell's Kitchen' Adjusted Up; 'iZombie' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
17. Kondolojy, Amanda (May 29, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: No Adjustement for 'iZombie', 'America's Got Talent' or '500 Questions'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
18. Kondolojy, Amanda (June 3, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: No Adjustments for 'America's Got Talent', 'iZombie' or 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
19. Bibel, Sara (June 10, 2015). "Tuesday Final Ratings: 'Hell's Kitchen' Adjusted Up & Final NBA Finals Numbers'". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 11, 2015.