Charlie McKay

“

Here comes the pain.

”

Hometown/Residence	Las Vegas, NV
Occupation	Prep Chef
Kitchen Experience	Almost 9 years
Culinary Education	Western Culinary Institute
Statistics
Challenges Won	2
Services Won	1
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	14th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	14 Chefs Compete
Images of Charlie McKay

Charles McCann Jr., simply known as Charlie McKay (November 17, 1982 - March 4, 2024), was a contestant on Season 5 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 14th place. He unfortunately passed away from a motorcycle accident on March 4, 2024.

Season 5

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 501 - 16 Chefs Compete

Thousands of chefs auditioned for Hell's Kitchen in the series' biggest turnout. However, only three hundred arrived at Hell’s Kitchen and met Jean-Philippe and Ramsay. Out of the three hundred, sixteen were selected to compete. Jean-Philippe began calling out the chefs chosen to compete. Charlie was seen as the second of the sixteen called to compete.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Charlie was the eighth person to have his dish judged by Ramsay. He made lamb chops that were arranged as a circle and mashed potatoes. Ramsay compared it to a Ferris wheel and called it a joke. After the challenge, Ramsay asked both teams to decide on a team name for the opening night. Per Robert's suggestion, the blue team went with Blues Brothers. Ramsay admitted to liking the name when he heard it.

Before service began, Ramsay turned to Charlie and told him to get to the dorms to trim his beard, as he claimed he did not want a complaint about a 12-inch ginger pubic hair in someone's crème brulée. As he went back to trim his beard, he refused to give Ramsay the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him. During dinner service, he was at the dessert station. When Wil performed poorly on garnish, he joined Robert in helping the former out. However, he called the garnish situation ugly. The blue team lost the service because of Giovanni's poor performance as a waiter, and they were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, he said that nominating someone was harsh. Still, he knew it was the reality of why they were competing. Then, he believed that Seth was the weakest chef for prep, but the latter argued he thought he did great.

He was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 2

Main article: Episode 502 - 15 Chefs Compete

The following day at 5:49 AM, a marching band came into the dorms and played loudly, and the chefs woke up. Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria ordered the chefs to get downstairs, and they were led outside to find Ramsay. Wanting both teams to learn how to respect their products, Ramsay had them go to their crates and gather all the scallops into their colored buckets. During the Scallop Cleaning Challenge, Charlie only got two scallops approved. The blue team won 36-35, and they were rewarded with a helicopter tour of Catalina Island with a submarine ride.

During dinner service, Charlie was on the appetizer station with Seth. Ramsay went to the blue kitchen to check on his risotto, but it was undercooked with no mascarpone cream cheese or ham. He claimed he never made a risotto until now, forcing Ramsay to tell Ben to help him out. Ben tried to help him out because that was what he did. Thanks to Ben, the risotto was accepted. Later, he and Seth brought their lobster spaghetti, but Ramsay noticed they had forgotten the lobster. He admitted they were stupid for that mistake, and Ramsay ordered both of them to wake up. The blue team won the service. At elimination, he gave an emotional standing ovation during Ji's exit with his team, along with holding the door for her so she could leave with her wheelchair, pushed by Andrea.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 503 - 14 Chefs Compete

The following morning, the Sous Chefs woke up the contestants at 6 AM with cowbells and told them to get dressed and out the front door to the SUVs. The barely awoke chefs were driven to an unknown place, and Charlie could only think about the cowbells ringing in his head. They took a trip to a meat processing plant to learn about beef cuts and placements on a cow. During the Meat & Cow Challenge, he was not seen participating. The blue team won the challenge. They were rewarded with a private jet trip to Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, California, where they had a wine tasting and a steak dinner with Ramsay. He said that the men were a force to be reckoned with after their service victory. During the reward, he called it a beautiful day.

During the Steakhouse double service, Charlie was at the fish station for the first seating. While working on their first ticket, he did not have his shrimp on for the Caesar salad, and Ramsay also noticed that his cloth caught fire. However, he was oblivious to it, and J told him to wake up. Ramsay eventually told Sous Chef Scott to put the cloth in the sink before he burned down the restaurant. He argued he was doing his best, but Sous Chef Scott told him to rethink his best efforts. His appetizers finally left the kitchen, only for Lacey to send them back due to having anchovies. However, that was from what she wrote on the ticket. When Seth prepped the filet, the former asked him for help. Two minutes before the seating ended, he tried to cook his tuna faster. After the first seating was over, Ramsay criticized him for his poor performance on fish. During the second seating, where he was a waiter, he asked Ben to check to see if he remembered to take one of his tables' orders. Fortunately, he did, as Ben found out soon enough. Still, Ben was not confident about his performance. Later, he accidentally caused a mess at one of his tables by accidentally dropping bacon bits on the table. That caused Jean-Philippe to pull him aside and chew him out for his embarrassing performance. Then, he cleaned up the bacon bits on the table while apologizing to the customers as he felt like a jerk.

The blue team lost the dinner service, and Charlie was deemed the worst waiter from his team by the customers. They were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, he thought they should have had it in the bag. Ben and Giovanni considered him for nomination, but he argued that Giovanni should go up based on his poor performance at the meat station despite working at a steakhouse. Seth agreed with him, but only because the former felt Giovanni was stronger than him.

Charlie was the blue team's second nominee for elimination, with Seth being the first. During his plea, he said he could cook his butt off and had more experience than Seth. Although he did not have the expertise in Ramsay's brigade, he wanted to continue to learn from the latter. He was eliminated for struggling in both the kitchen and dining room that night and for his failure to improve in three services. During his exit interview, he disagreed with Ramsay's decision and was confident in his own abilities if the latter was not.

Ramsay's comment: "Charlie is a prep chef, but I'm looking for a head chef. He seemed like a nice guy, but you know where nice guys finish."

Nomination History

Week 1	Safe
Week 2	Win
Week 3	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After his appearance on the show, Charlie returned to the kitchen.
• He was Executive Chef at B.B. King's Blues Club in West Palm Beach, Florida for three years.
• He worked as a chef at SALT7 in Delray Beach, Florida for six years.
• In 2018, he acquired and co-owned Nitrogen with his wife until it closed for further notice in March 2024.
• He unfortunately passed away on March 4, 2024.

Trivia

• He is the only contestant to this date to have shaved because Ramsay asked him to.
• He is the only contestant in his season to never do a punishment.
• He and LA (also from Season 5) are the second pair of contestants from the state of Nevada, following Louross and Sharon (both from Season 4).
• He is the first male contestant to be ranked 14th place.

Quotes

• (About Ramsay) "He's trying to get a rise out of me, you know, I'm not gonna give him that satisfaction. It's just a little hair up my face, and it's all gravy, baby!"
• "The boys' team, we're just a force to be reckoned with now, just coming off of a win on a service, and a win on two challenges back to back. It's a kick to the teeth in morale-land."
• (To Ramsay) "I'm doing my best, Chef."
• (After being eliminated) "This is the first job I've ever been fired from. Chef Ramsay made the wrong decision. I did what I could, and I worked my ass off for the guy. I'm confident in my ability, and if he didn't see it, that's his own bad."

Gallery

Charlie's Intro Spot

Charlie's Signature Dish

Charlie in Blue Jacket

Charlie's Confessional

Charlie and Seth Nominated

Charlie Eliminated