Craig Schneider

“

I don't know percentages, but just over that.

”

Hometown	Coram, NY
Occupation	Sous Chef
Culinary Education	Johnson & Wales University
Statistics
Challenges Won	1
Services Won	1
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	12th
Episode Eliminated	12 Chefs Compete

Craig Schneider was a contestant on Season 4 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 12th place.

Craig was an inconsistent chef. He had poor performances in challenges and the kitchen. After being responsible early on for losing challenges for the blue team, his teammates quickly turned against him and his meltdown on Family Night, having a bad attitude towards his teammates and completely shutting down. Due to his overall poor performances in challenges and services, his bad attitude and a horrible last service led to his elimination.

Season 4

Episode 1

The contestants flew into Los Angeles to compete at Hell's Kitchen. Soon, the chefs met up on the bus going to Hell's Kitchen. What they did not know was Ramsay was in the bus with them, in disguise. On the bus, Craig made a mocking appreciation to his competitors as he planned to show Ramsay that he was the only one who could cook. He told everyone off, but Jen was not intimidated based on the hat he wore. Still, he said that Ramsay could take his hat away if it meant giving it back after he won. Eventually, the contestants arrived at Hell's Kitchen, greeted by Jean-Philippe. After some hellos, Jean-Philippe claimed he was good at making an impression of Ramsay, which he did by calling out orders and yelling at them. After he did, Jean-Philippe asked Shayna and Jason to do their impressions themselves. After that, Jean-Philippe called up the disguised Ramsay, who spoke in his natural voice. While the chefs were initially impressed by the acting, they quickly realized that something was up. Ramsay revealed himself, which excited every contestant. Dominic admitted that he did not see it coming. After that, Ramsay instructed the chefs to create their signature dishes as he wanted to see how well they could cook as well as they talked on the bus.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Craig was the first person to have his dish judged by Ramsay. When he came down, his hat perturbed Ramsay. He said he was a short person his entire life, and the hat made him feel he was tall in the kitchen. Ramsay said he never saw a hat that big in his career and asked him if he had small boy syndrome downstairs. He made a jerked seared Chilean sea bass with raisin risotto. It was deemed too sweet, but he tried to argue that the sweetness was to balance out the jerk seasoning. However, Ramsay did not buy that and called it terrible. Also, Ramsay told him not to come in the kitchen with his ridiculous hat because otherwise, he would stick it in his ass sideways. Still, he felt naked without the hat.

After the challenge, Ramsay asked both teams to name a team captain for the opening night. Everyone on the blue team wanted to be the captain, and that frustrated Craig as it was becoming a circus act. Eventually, the blue team picked Bobby as their captain.

During dinner service, Craig was on the floater station. He made a comment when Jason arrived in the kitchen after the service began, comparing him to a magician, like if he disappeared. When the team was struggling, he got angry when Bobby refused to help as it was the equivalent to quitting. When service closed due to tables leaving, he felt embarrassed. The blue team eventually lost the dinner service, and Louross was named "Best of the Worst".

He was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 2

The next morning, the Sous Chefs woke up all the contestants while holding megaphones, and told them to get outside immediately. Arrived outside, they went through the garbage bags from the previous service to select every food from them, and sort them in big cylinders. When they got back in the kitchen, Ramsay introduced the 6 Ounce Halibut Challenge. When the blue team was done, Craig brought the batch to Ramsay for judging, and 41 of their 50 pieces were accepted, ending the score in a tie.

The blue team eventually won after the tiebreaker and was rewarded with a day at the sea, on a 100-foot superyacht where they ate seafood meals with Ramsay and were transported there by Rolls-Royce and Bentleys. During the reward, the men shouted "Whose yacht?" and responded "Blue's yacht!", referring to one of Jen's antics before they left.

During prep, the level of confidence in the blue team was high. During dinner service, Craig was assigned as an assistant maître d', helping Jean-Philippe in the dining room, along with Rosann from the red team. He was slow to bring his first ticket to the kitchen, and when he did, Ramsay mocked him by calling him "Chef Craig". Later into service, when he was carrying a high chair across the dining room, he accidentally hit a female customer with it behind the head. This infuriated Jean-Philippe, who told him to go apologize. He went to the table and apologized to the woman, very timidly and embarrassed. His team eventually won the service after they served half of their entrées to the customers.

Episode 3

The next morning, after a wake-up call where each contestant had to grab a chicken and Ramsay making them falsely believe they would have to kill them, the latter introduced the Chicken Cutting Challenge. During the challenge, Craig was the slowest of the blue team, with Matt even comparing him to be as slow as molasses. When his pieces were judged, only 2 pieces out of his 8 were acceptable, making the blue team automatically lose the challenge 24-44. For their punishment, they had to pick peppers in the countryside, with farmer's clothes and hat on, under the hot boiling sun. When they were getting ready, he laid on his bed, feeling guilty knowing he was the weakest link, at the same time as Matt was throwing a tantrum by chucking his things while getting changed. During the punishment, Ben threw some peppers at him, which he did not appreciate.

During prep, Craig was annoying Bobby because of his way of not doing anything and being completely lost. During dinner service, he was on the appetizer station with Petrozza. When Ben and Matt asked him how much time it would take him to make his first risotto, he told that he said two minutes thirty seconds before and that they had to do the math. When Ramsay asked him how long, he was schooled on his behavior and told to communicate. After that, he got into a little argument with Matt, when he told the latter to shut the fuck up. Matt compared him to Edith's character in "All In The Family". Later, when he was asked by Ben for the bacon, he declared he did not have it yet. So, Ramsay made a painful decision, which was sending an incomplete order, where half of the table would eat, and the other would stare. When Ramsay asked him if he was happy, he answered that he was not. When he finally delivered bacon to the pass, Ramsay sent the rest of the table out. Hours after, Ramsay shut down both kitchens, declared both of them losers, and named Petrozza "Best of the Worst" for the blue team.

During deliberation, Craig was considered by Petrozza, who acknowledged the rest of the team would like to get rid of him. Despite that, he was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 4

When all the contestants got back to the dorms, Ramsay called them on the microphone, ordering to get down so they could clean their kitchens.

During the Pasta Making Challenge, near the end, Craig was holding the pasta to go in the machine, but he was doing it wrong, so Louross told him how to properly do it. But, Bobby pushed him to the side and rolled the pasta himself, which annoyed him, who told everybody would like to make themselves look good and make other people look like shit. But he stood there, not helping, and Ramsay called him a "lazy little fucker" and told him to move. The blue team lost the challenge as they managed to get 5.48 lbs of acceptable pasta, compared to the red team's 6.57 lbs.

Their punishment was to prep all the new Family Night menu items, all day long, for both kitchens. When the blue team got back to the dorms after the challenge, Craig spent some time alone, away from his team, while Louross was pointing fingers at him, saying he was not a team player. During prep, everybody was trying to rally behind him, as he was deemed the weakest link at that point, but he gave all of them attitude saying pasta was easy to cook and that they should shut the fuck up.

During Family Night dinner service, Craig was on the pasta station. Two hours in, he brought a meatball spaghetti to the pass when a spaghetti of clams was on order. Ramsay called the ticket again and asked for a spaghetti of clams quickly, but when hen he sent it, it turned out raw. Ramsay furiously asked him to start again, but when Bobby came over to help, he repeatedly said he had it, and when Ramsay asked for a time, he did not answer. When his entire team asked him the same question, he disrespectfully shouted two minutes. After the red team finished all their tickets and were sent to the blue kitchen to help the men finish, he refused Shayna's help, constantly saying he got it. After Ramsay called out another ticket and asked Craig how long for the spaghetti of clams, he failed to answer, so Ramsay became furious, and Matt tried to convince him to answer. Then, Ramsay told him he was making him feel nervous, before he grabbed a hot pan with his bare hands, burning himself in the process. When everybody, including Ramsay, was asking Craig a time, he lost his patience and disrespectfully told it was coming right now, and that they had to fucking listen. He threw a pan in anger while everybody was staring at him, disbelieving Ramsay.

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay asked Craig if it was that difficult to cook pasta, which he answered it was not. The blue team lost the dinner service, and Bobby was named "Best of the Worst".

Craig was Bobby's first nominee for elimination, with Matt being the second, and Ben eventually joined them. After revealing that he did not know percentages, he was eliminated by Ramsay for his terrible attitude and being a constantly poor performer.

Ramsay's comment: "I can teach someone how to cook, but Craig was a bad cook with an even worse attitude. There was no hope for him."

Nomination History

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

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After his appearance on the show, Craig returned to his previous role as Sous Chef at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Long Island, New York.
• After that, he moved to working in various airports in the New York area, as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager.

Trivia

• He is the first contestant to rank 12th place, without ranking last place on his season.

Quotes

• "I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it!!!"
• "TWO MINUTES!"
• "COMING UP RIGHT NOW! FUCKING LISTEN!"
• (Plea on why he should stay) "I don't know percentages, but just over that."
• (About Bobby) "He's the captain. To be like aurahhh I don't want to join the chaos, it's almost like saying "Fuck you I quit"."
• (After being eliminated) "My dream when I came to Hell's Kitchen was to get my own restaurant. I didn't do the job I was supposed to. I had a lot more to prove. I'm like stunned and amazed, like, that, this sucks."

Gallery

Craig's Intro Spot

Craig's Signature Dish

Craig in Blue Jacket

Craig's Confessional

Craig as an Assistant Maitre D'

Ben, Craig, and Matt Nominated

Craig Eliminated

External links

• Craig Schneider on Instagram