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.

Season 4

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 401 - 15 Chefs Compete

The contestants flew into Los Angeles to compete at Hell's Kitchen. Soon, the chefs met on the bus to Hell's Kitchen. They did not know that Ramsay was disguised on the bus with them. 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 something was up. Ramsay revealed himself, which excited every contestant. 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 into 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 commented when Jason arrived in the kitchen after the service began, comparing him to a magician as if he had disappeared. When the team was struggling, he got angry when Bobby refused to help, which was the equivalent of 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

Main article: Episode 402 - 14 Chefs Compete

After a night with very little sleep, the contestants were woken up the following morning by the Sous Chefs. They held megaphones and told them to get outside immediately. Arriving outside, Ramsay declared that any restaurant would have hit bankruptcy with all the food wasted the previous night. Ramsay called over a dump truck and ordered them to take every wasted food and put it in the cylinders to give the chefs a better understanding of what they trashed last night. After a few minutes, Ramsay told them to get back in line up the stairs and declared they should be ashamed as they had put thousands of dollars in the trash during the last service. Ramsay warned them to start giving a damn and told them to clean up and change.

During the 6-Ounce Halibut Challenge, Craig was seen delivering the portions to Ramsay. The blue team won after a tiebreaker at 41 each. They were rewarded with a day on a 100-foot superyacht and were transported in Rolls-Royce and Bentleys.

During dinner service, Craig was assigned as an assistant maître d'. He was slow to bring their first tickets to Ramsay in the dining room, and Jean-Philippe feared the latter would explode. When he finally handed Ramsay his first ticket, Ramsay mocked him by calling him Chef Craig. Later, he lifted a high chair to transport it from one end of the room to the other in the dining room. However, he hit a female customer behind the head with the chair. Jean-Philippe became furious and asked him to apologize to her, which he did very timidly. The blue team won the service.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 403 - 13 Chefs Compete

The following day, the contestants were awakened by chickens running around in the dorms. Calling from the P.A., Ramsay told them to get up, grab a chicken, and come down to the dining room. During the Chicken Cutting Challenge, Craig was the slowest of the blue team, causing Matt to call him slow as molasses, making him feel like the million-dollar man going for a jog. He was the fourth person from the blue team to have his pieces judged. He got the wings accepted and claimed he wanted to win. However, the rest of the pieces were butchered poorly, leading Ramsay to question his experience as a chef. That disappointed him. Because of his poor performance, the blue team lost the challenge 24-42. Ramsay asked Craig what he was doing as he was responsible for the men's loss.

The blue team was punished by picking peppers on a 100-acre farm, wearing farmers' clothes and hats under the hot temperature of the sun. After hearing the punishment, a pissed Ben said Craig sucked and wanted him to go home. As the men got changed, Matt could not believe that he, a chef who had thirteen years of experience, could not correctly butcher a chicken. Matt went as far as to compare him to someone who flew out of the cuckoo nest after getting shock treatments. During the punishment, they threw peppers at Craig, who did not find it funny.

During prep, Bobby was annoyed by Craig's lack of knowledge of the appetizer station and accused him of being a broken compass. He was at the appetizer station with Petrozza during dinner service. He had communication problems with Petrozza and Ben, and Matt asked how long it would take him to make his first risotto. Annoyed by the constant questions, he revealed that he said 2 minutes 30 seconds ago, and they had to do the math. When Ramsay asked him how long, the former schooled him on his behavior and told him to communicate while working. That made Matt compare him to Edith from All In The Family due to his mumbling. He did not appreciate that, leading to a small snipe at Matt. Despite Petrozza having his appetizers ready, he said he did not have the bacon ready when Ben asked. That led Ben to call him an idiot and that he could not work his station despite working in the industry for thirteen years. With his bacon a minute and a half away from finishing, Ramsay made a painful decision and sent out an incomplete order. A pissed Ramsay asked him if he was happy about feeding half a table, but he said he was not. When he finally delivered bacon to the pass, Ramsay sent the rest of the table out. Both teams were named joint losers, and Petrozza was named the "Best of the Worst" for the blue team.

Although Petrozza considered Craig for elimination, he was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 4

Main article: Episode 404 - 12 Chefs Compete

A few moments after the chefs returned to the dorms, Ramsay spoke into the microphone and ordered them to clean the kitchens as he refused to leave them in a disgusting mess.

During the Pasta Making Challenge, Craig was holding the pasta to go in the machine. Still, he was doing it wrong, and Louross told him how to do it properly. However, Bobby, who acknowledged that he was holding the men back during every challenge, pushed him to the side and rolled the pasta himself. That annoyed him, who thought everybody wanted to make themselves look good and make others look terrible. He stood there, not helping, and Ramsay ordered him to move after calling him lazy. The blue team lost the challenge 5.49lbs-6.57lbs, and they were punished by prepping all the new menu items all day long for both kitchens. Back at the dorms, Louross blamed him for not being a team player while he spent some alone time away from his team. During the punishment, he, Louross, and Matt jokingly hoped the rides would break on the women.

During prep, everybody tried to rally behind Craig, who was deemed the weakest link. Still, he thought that the pasta station was easy and told them to shut up. During the Family Night dinner service, he was at the pasta station. When a chicken wing Matt cooked came back for being undercooked, he thought it was a major mistake and called it nasty if a kid bit into a raw chicken. Later, 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. When he sent it, it came out raw. Ramsay furiously asked him to start again, but when Bobby came over to help, he repeatedly said he had it. Ramsay asked for a time, but he did not answer, and when his entire team did, he disrespectfully shouted two minutes. Afterwards, the red team came to help the blue team, and Shayna came to help him. However, he refused her help, constantly saying he got it. That annoyed Shayna, and she told him to accept the help. Ramsay called out another ticket and asked him how long for the spaghetti of clams. However, he failed to answer, frustrating Ramsay, and Matt tried to convince him to answer. Then, Ramsay said he was making him nervous, and he grabbed a hot pan with his bare hands, burning himself in the process. When everybody, including Ramsay, asked him a time, he lost his patience and disrespectfully told them it was coming right now and that they had to listen. Much to Ramsay's disbelief, he threw a pan in anger while everybody stared at him.

The blue team lost the service, and Ramsay asked Craig if it was that difficult to cook pasta, to which the latter answered no. Bobby was named "Best of the Worst". During deliberation, he told Ben that the pasta incident was not his fault, and he knew that Matt and Ben did not perform well like he did. He refused to talk with Bobby about his standings as he knew he would be nominated, but he did not want to be a pet dog to the team.

Craig was Bobby's first nominee for elimination, with Matt being the second, and Ben eventually joined them. During his plea, he admitted he did not have a great service, but he argued about having a drive and motivation to do better. Still, Ramsay reminded him that he gave them an easy menu that night, and he was cooking pasta. After Ben and Matt promised to give it their all based on percentages, he declared he did not know what percentages were but would give just over that. In the end, Ramsay eliminated him for failing to keep control of his station and his poor attitude during service. As he left, Ramsay sarcastically thanked him for giving him a huge headache. During his exit interview, he said he wanted to get a restaurant out of his experience, but he felt he did not perform as he should have.

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 work in various airports in the New York area as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager.

Trivia

• He is the first contestant ever to rank 12th place without ranking last place in his season.
  • He is also the first male contestant to be ranked 12th place.

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

• Chef
• Dish

Craig's Intro Spot

Craig in Blue Jacket

Craig's Confessional

Craig as an Assistant Maitre D'

Ben, Craig, and Matt Nominated

Craig Eliminated

Craig's Signature Dish (Episode 1)

External links

• Craig Schneider on Instagram