Coi Burruss

“

I don't care whose shit you take!

”

Hometown/Residence	Austin, TX
Occupation	Café Cook
Kitchen Experience	8 years
Culinary Education	Art Institute of Houston
Statistics
Challenges Won	2
Services Won	2
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	11th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	11 Chefs Compete

Coi Burruss was a contestant on Season 5 of Hell's Kitchen. She ranked in 11th place.

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. While not seen, Coi was one of the sixteen called to compete.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Coi was the thirteenth chef to have her dished judged by Ramsay. She made crab tortellini with brown gravy and Ramsay praised it for being perfectly cooked. After the challenge, Ramsay asked both teams to decide on a team name for the opening night. She wanted to name the women's team after a spice. However, her suggestions did not sit well with Lacey, who called them stupid.

When the teams were lined up, the women revealed their new team name, Team Saffron. It was eventually changed to "Spice Racks" after a request from Colleen. Five minutes before service began, Coi asked Lacey for some help on the soufflés. But, the two argued about Lacey leaving for most of the women's prep and not getting them prepped earlier. Lacey did not like her attitude, but she threatened to come after the former if she was responsible for her elimination. She was angry that Lacey did not set up her station compared to the others, but Andrea told the latter to calm down as they needed her. However, Lacey said arguments happened every time she worked with women and started another fight with her. Ramsay saw what was happening, and she told him that the dessert station was doomed. Still, Ramsay had to defuse another argument and ordered them to get a grip.

During dinner service, Coi was at the meat station with LA. She went unnoticed for most of the service as they never went past appetizers before Ramsay closed down service. The red team won the service as Carol had a strong performance as a waitress.

Episode 2

Main article: Episode 502 - 15 Chefs Compete

Back at the dorms, Coi apologized to Lacey for arguing with her before service. Still, she did mention how the latter let them down during prep by leaving the kitchen. Lacey tried to argue that she lacked her teammates' experience, but she accused her of giving up on them. Then, she told Lacey to either get a grip or leave.

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, Coi was able to get six of her scallops accepted by Ramsay. The red team lost the challenge 35-36, and they were forced to prepare a raw bar for the next service.

During dinner service, Coi was at the meat station with Lacey. She was not seen much in service, but Paula soon joined her after Ramsay did a reassignment shuffle. Her team lost the dinner service. During deliberation, she acknowledged that Lacey helped Colleen early that night.

Coi was not nominated for elimination and participated in Ji's emotional standing ovation, like the rest of the red team and the blue team.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 503 - 14 Chefs Compete

Back in the dorms, Coi reminded Lacey that they lost one of their strongest chefs that night, referring to Ji.

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. It turned out to be a meat processing plant, and they took a tour. Also, Sous Chef Scott showed the chefs where each cut of beef was located on the cow's body. During the Meat & Cow Challenge, Coi was not seen participating in either part. The red team lost the challenge, and she got embarrassed as she hated losing. The red team was punished by taking in two large sides of beef, prepping them, and eating cow offal. During the punishment, she forced Lacey to eat the offal and got determined to eat it after seeing Andrea puke.

During the Steakhouse double dinner service, Coi was a waitress for the first seating, in which she went unseen. She was at the fish station for the second seating during the second seating. One of her shrimp Caesar salads was returned by J for being undercooked. Ramsay chewed her out for that. The red team won the dinner service.

Episode 4

Main article: Episode 504 - 13 Chefs Compete

During the Football Team & Cheerleaders Breakfast Service Challenge, Coi was on the pancake station with Paula. She burned a pancake which Ramsay compared to a pair of rubber nickers, before binning them. She admitted it was nerves before a flare-up occurred, and Ramsay told Paula to bring back their standards. The red team won the challenge, and they were rewarded with a camping experience at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Before leaving, she overheard the men arguing and told the women about it. During the reward, she called Beverly Hills-style camping great.

During dinner service, Coi was at the appetizer station with Lacey. She was caught cooking spaghetti not to order in the red kitchen and further frustrated Ramsay when she admitted she was trying to get ahead. Then, her spaghetti dish was sent up in the red kitchen, but it was dry, bland, under-seasoned, and undercooked. That left Ramsay getting pissed off even more, and Carol was surprised as she thought she would do well on appetizers. She lamented that she did not think cooking pasta would be hard, and Ramsay refused any more bad products from her. Thanks to Andrea's leadership, she and Lacey got appetizers out. Near the end of service, two of her spaghetti dishes were returned for having no lobster and being undercooked.

Both teams were named joint losers, and they were asked to nominate two each. During deliberation, Coi apologized to the woman for her poor performance and believed she was to go home. She knew she sucked that night and self-nominated herself as she was the worst performer on the women.

Coi was not nominated for elimination, but Lacey told Ramsay that she performed the worst by comparison. She called it her worse night, and Ramsay thanked her for her honesty. As such, Ramsay kept the nominations the same. After Seth's elimination, she said goodbye to Lacey as the latter was reassigned to the blue team.

Episode 5

Main article: Episode 505 - 12 Chefs Compete

During the Asian Fusion Challenge, Coi was paired with Carol on the poultry dish. They were the first pair from the red team to have their dish judged and went up against the pair of Danny and Robert. They made a pomegranate cinnamon glazed chicken breast. Both Ramsay and Tanya Steele felt that the presentation was boring and that the chicken was dry, even though the flavours were good. They lost that round to the pair of Danny and Robert. The red team won the challenge 2-1. They were rewarded with having their dishes featured on the Epicurious website and an Asian-inspired day that included sumo wrestling and sake tasting. Before leaving for the reward, she saw how frustrated the blue team was getting with Lacey and knew it was like that back on the red team. During the reward, she thought she did nine sake shots.

During dinner service, Coi was on the garnish station with Paula. At one point, she confirmed there were Wellingtons in the oven when Ramsay saw it open due to Colleen. Both teams were named joint losers, and LA was named the "Best of the Worst" for the red team.

She was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 6

Main article: Episode 506 - 11 Chefs Compete

When Ramsay announced that their next service was a Bar Mitzvah, Coi said she catered a lot of Bar Mitzvahs and commented how much fun they were. During the Bar Mitzvah Planning Challenge, Andrea asked her what she would do with the brisket in the red kitchen, and she said she was going to barbecue it. She knew what she liked when she was thirteen. Later, she echoed Andrea's concern about Carol using blue cheese for the burger. When Max's family tasted the soups, she loved how Sally, the grandmother, enjoyed their dish. The red team lost 1-2, and they were punished by decorating the dining room for the following night’s service, based on Francisco the Party Planner instructions. When the red team met Francisco, she called him fabulous.

Before the Bar Mitzvah dinner service, Ramsay was impressed with the dining room behind him, while Coi said she never knew Hell's Kitchen could look pretty. She was at the meat station. After Ramsay called out Max’s table to the red team, she went into the pantry room to grab the burgers as she forgot about them, much to Ramsay’s frustration. She admitted that she did forget the burgers, but she argued that it happened to the best of them. She was getting her burgers ready in the red kitchen but found out they were sticking to the grill. When she set the burgers up, LA found out they were still rare and told her to put them back on the grill. When Ramsay impatiently asked for the burgers, she and Carol were forced to send them up. As feared, Ramsay felt they were cold and pushed the red team to touch them. LA went to help her out as she was not communicating with the team, but she claimed that they were hot when she pulled them off the grill. The second attempt on the burgers was deemed acceptable, and Max finally received his entrée. Later, she brought up her brisket, but Ramsay asked for more brisket. Carol tried to help her out on meat, but too many people were hovering around the station. Ramsay told the red team to spread out as there were many people on the meat station, and she annoyingly said she was close to blowing up. Then, she and LA bickered over how to slice the brisket. When the red team was on their last entrées, she called out that she needed four minutes on her burgers, but Ramsay and the red team argued that it should not take that long.

The red team lost the service, and Andrea was named the "Best of the Worst." During deliberation, Coi told Carol that they had to tell Ramsay the truth about Andrea's performance that night if they were nominated.

Coi was Andrea's first nominee for elimination, with LA being the second. She said she was a team player and a strong motivator for the red team during her plea. Before Ramsay could make his decision, she told him that Andrea was the worst performer on the red team that night. Ramsay asked her if she was trying to play mind games on him, but the latter stood by her word. While LA and Carol agreed with her, Paula did not and called her the weakest performer that night. In the end, Ramsay eliminated her for her poor performance at the meat station. During her exit interview, she felt Andrea should be gone and was still angry that Ramsay did not see the latter as the worst.

Ramsay's comment: "When this competition began, I thought Coi was gonna be a really strong chef. But tonight, she was exposed when she couldn't even cook a bloody burger."

Nomination History

Week 1	Win
Week 2	Safe
Week 3	Win
Week 4	Safe
Week 5	Safe
Week 6	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After her appearance on the show, Coi became an executive chef at Mediterranean Chef and opened her own business called Leila T's Catering Co.
• She designed her own line of chef garbs for women.

Trivia

• She and LA are the youngest of the season, at age 22 (38 now).
• She is the first person on season 5 to be a member of the red team and be eliminated normally, as Ji quit and Colleen was eliminated despite not being nominated.

Quotes

• "I don't care whose shit you take but you need to help me with this stuff!"
• "If I get kicked off because of you, I swear to God I'm coming after you, Lacey!"
• (To Ramsay, complaining about the dessert station) "This station is fucked up!"
• (To Lacey) "Don't say a fucking thing."
• (To Chef Ramsay after Lacey messed up her station) "I come over here, there's nothing fucking done, chef. NOTHING!".
• (About Lacey) "Lacey has been fucking off all fucking day, whining and fucking complaining and every single body station is set up, except for hers. (exhale)"
• (After being eliminated) "I feel Andrea should be here right now. I'm angry for the fact she was not seen as the worst. I don't feel like I should be going home."

Gallery

• Chef
• Dishes

Coi's Intro Spot

Coi in Red Jacket

Coi's Confessional

Coi and LA Nominated

Coi Eliminated

Coi's Signature Dish

Carol and Coi's Asian Fusion Dish (Episode 5)