The first episode of Season 1 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on May 30, 2005. In that episode, we got to know the contestants of that season, and the staff, the teams were divided, and one contestant is eliminated not even twelve hours after arriving in Hell's Kitchen.
Intro[]
The season and series begin with the narrator giving a short biography of Gordon Ramsay, mentioning his flagship restaurant Savoy along with his perfectionism and temper. Then, the narrator revealed that Ramsay would be going to America to find one top chef out of twelve contestants, with the grand prize of winning their own restaurant. A preview of that season's moments was shown.
At the heart of Hollywood, California, the twelve contestants arrived in Hell's Kitchen and celebrated with a champagne glass while getting to know each other. Although each of them was from different parts of America and had different skill levels, they all shared cooking as their primary passion. As the contestants walked around the restaurant, Jessica revealed that she loved to cook and called Hell's Kitchen a great experience, and it would realize her dream of owning her own restaurant. Dewberry nearly tripped when he walked down a step before revealing that Southern cooking was his primary skill. Andrew, who had ten years of restaurant experience, announced two of his dreams, a state senator and owning his own restaurant. Then, Maître D' Jean-Philippe and Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann greeted them. After Scott revealed that they would test them on how a restaurant ran, Mary-Ann revealed that their first test began now.
Signature Dish Challenge[]
Per Ramsay's request, the twelve contestants had 45 minutes to cook their signature dishes which represented themselves on a plate. As the contestants started cooking in the Signature Dish Challenge, Dewberry called it scary to cook his signature dish and felt everybody had a deer-in-the-headlights look. Wendy asked if anybody was using a particular knife, which Chris said that he was, before feeling that Ramsay would love her perfectionist attitude. While Elsie was excited to compete, she was also scared as she never worked around chefs before and asked what the hell she was doing. Bartender Mary Ellen revealed her dish as an endive salad with toasted almonds due to the crunchiness and said she loved endives. Simultaneously, Michael called himself a dedicated chef and said that working with Ramsay was an opportunity of a lifetime. Eventually, the contestants had their dishes cooked and plated on time, and all of them were covered in silver domes.
Ramsay came down from his office, introduced himself, and randomly picked Andrew's Absolute Penne, which appears to be a penne dish with peppers, parmesan and basil, first. However, Ramsay called the dish "Absolute Dogshit" after spitting it out and then told Andrew that his ten years of experience in the kitchen were a waste when the latter smartly said it needed salt. Then, Ramsay was shocked that Mary Ellen's endive salad had nothing cooked and deemed it boring, and Wendy's fried rice with Chinese sausage was unimpressive as she did not put lobster in it because she did not know he was coming. Jimmy was the fourth person to have his dish judged and served his pan-seared chicken breast stuffed with Portabella mushrooms and goat cheese with pumpkin mash and carrot tops. Ramsay compared the plate to a dehydrated camel's turd, overcooked outside and raw inside, and the carrot tops were bitter. Ramsay refused to taste them and tossed them to Jimmy. Then, Ralph's seared tuna with sesame noodles was called terrible by Ramsay, and after he told him he was number one at his restaurant, Ramsay did not miss the opportunity of making fun of him in front of everybody. After seeing the harsh critiques, Elsie started to panic and sweat as she felt her dish was up next, which it was. When Ramsay asked Elsie who she would usually make her turkey tacos for, she said her children, leading him to ask if they were still alive. Despite a disastrous presentation, they were deemed not bad, making Elsie thrilled that Ramsay did not spit it out. When it was Dewberry's turn, Ramsay had some confusion over how to pronounce his name, and the former's baked spaghetti bolognese was overcooked and compared to children's food. The eighth dish, a salmon on a plank with ratatouille, was revealed to be Chris', who admitted to Ramsay that he was an Executive Chef. However, Chris' cedar plank-roasted salmon was raw, and was called a plank for his efforts. When Chris talked back to Ramsay, the latter immediately put in his place by him when Ramsay told him he had a lot to learn. Then, Jeff, who called it a significant opportunity as he quit his job to be there, served a steak with mushrooms and sauce. While the sauce was nice, the mushrooms were salty, and the steak was overcooked, so Ramsay ranked it 1 out of 10. After, Jessica's Cajun soft-shelled crabs with spicy aioli were way too hot for Ramsay to handle, to the point the latter downed an entire water bottle after one bite. Michael's scallops with a quail egg and asparagus over corn puree were up, but when Ramsay questioned the roe on them, the former quietly stumbled that he did not like the roe. After, Ramsay had Michael eat the dish with him, but while the latter felt it was not bad, Ramsay told Michael that he had the palate of a cow's backside as the dish tasted disgusting. Finally, Carolann's chicken parmesan was the only dish that received praise because the chicken was very moist and cooked to perfection, and the presentation was appealing, before telling the other contestants that Carolann, despite not being a chef, knew how to cook chicken.
Scoring[]
| Signature Dishes | |
| Chef | Rating |
|---|---|
| Andrew | Poor |
| Mary Ellen | Poor |
| Wendy | Poor |
| Jimmy | Poor |
| Ralph | Poor |
| Elsie | Decent |
| Dewberry | Poor |
| Chris | Poor |
| Jeff | Poor |
| Jessica | Poor |
| Michael | Poor |
| Carolann | Good |
Teams[]
After the challenge, Ramsay commented on how little promise there was from the contestants, but since he would uphold his promise of turning one of them into a master chef, he asked them not to embarrass him. Then, Ramsay reminded the twelve about the grand prize, their own restaurant, but warned them that if they screwed him, they would be history. After, the teams were built. The members of the blue team were Andrew, Mary Ellen, Jessica, Wendy, Ralph, and Michael, and they would be working with Sous Chef Scott. The members of the red team were Jimmy, Elsie, Dewberry, Chris, Carolann, and Jeff, and would be working with Sous Chef Mary-Ann. Once the teams were formed, Ramsay told the contestants to be prepared for anything.
As the Sous Chefs led the contestants to the dorms, Scott said Ramsay wanted them in the kitchen in thirty minutes. When they saw the dorms, Elsie admitted that she did not think they were living close to the kitchen. Then, they all changed into their respective jackets and walked back to the kitchen.
Before service[]
Once everybody was downstairs, Ramsay reminded them what he said about being prepared for anything before announcing that Hell's Kitchen was opening that night. There would be a losing team at the end of service and one person leaving with their dream with them.
As prep began, Dewberry wanted to throw up by the news, while Carolann revealed that they had to learn five appetizers, five entrées, and five desserts in a couple of hours. While Chris explained to his teammates what a convection oven was, he showed a pretentious attitude as he mocked his teammates for having less knowledge than he did. Also, Chris claimed he would rather be on a dishwasher team because they knew how a kitchen was working. Then, Elsie said she wanted to win a restaurant more than the men.
With only 15 minutes until the doors opened, Ramsay called it a big night before reminding them that bloody good food is required for a bloody good service, and vice versa. Ralph and Jeff were assigned as waiters and would work with Jean-Philippe in the dining room. However, Ralph said that he could have been a greater help to his team in the kitchen than in the dining room, while Jeff was relieved as he worked with people for a living.
Dinner service[]
After Ralph and Jeff waited on their first tables, the former sent up his first ticket to Ramsay. However, Michael was the only one to respond to Ramsay's order while his teammates stood in silence, and Ramsay was forced to call it out again after calling it pathetic. Jeff was confused about whether he had to hand his ticket over to either Jean-Philippe or Ramsay, but Jean-Philippe told him to give it to Ramsay. In the red kitchen, Elsie wanted to make Ramsay proud, but her risotto was overcooked, like if it was glued to the plate. When Ramsay waved it around, none of it moved. So, he trashed it, and Elsie had to start over while being terrified.
One hour after opening, no food has left the kitchen, and Ralph's table was getting impatient while he tried to go to the pass for an estimated time. In the blue kitchen, Michael ran out of lobster spaghetti, and when he told Ramsay about the problem, the latter said to him that as long as they got live lobsters and pasta, there was no reason to take it out of the menu. So, Michael ran in the back store to get live lobsters. Eventually, Ralph's table got up to the kitchen and talk to Ramsay about the long wait, but when they arrived to speak with him, he told them to shut the fuck up and told the blue team to ignore the bimbos. So, the ladies went back to their table, upset by Ramsay's attitude.
One hour and 20 minutes into service, some of the red diners were receiving appetizers and were onto entrées. When Chris sent an overcooked salmon to the pass, Ramsay smacked the fish in his chest, scolded him for sending it up when he knew it was fucked up and told him to redo the whole table over. However, Chris arrogantly felt that Ramsay would acknowledge his experience in time, while Jimmy called Ramsay insane before swearing he would not let the latter get to him as he was not a piece of garbage. Then, Jimmy sent what Ramsay called "a dog's dinner" to the pass, and while asking him if he would serve that, Jimmy answered he would not, and Ramsay smacked it in his chest exactly as he did with Chris. After, Ramsay reminded Jimmy about standards, asked how he would feel if he served something like that.
Two hours into dinner service, service was running way worse than Ramsay expected as, while both teams were serving appetizers, neither of them was sending out entrées. Andrew provoked Ramsay by asking if he would come down to tell him if the dessert he made was acceptable, but the latter went to his face by telling him that he was not going to move from the hot plate and come down to him and that if he had a question, he had to come down to the hot plate himself. Then, Andrew felt that Ramsay did not like him but challenged the latter to pick on him as he did not care. In the red kitchen, Elsie sent a second risotto hoping to redeem herself, which she successfully did, and she felt that Ramsay noticed her determination. After a lot of struggle on the meat station, Jimmy was hoping to do the same as Elsie, but when he went to the oven and grab lamb, he did it with his bare hands instead of using tongs, leading him to burn his left hand and see the medic. After noticing many struggles in the red kitchen, Elsie noticed that Carolann was doing nothing but staring at her team and waiting, which Ramsay noticed before ordering her to come and help. However, Carolann got angry at Ramsay for that and wished she was Superwoman so she could do every station herself. When Jimmy came back from the medic, Ramsay said he never saw a chef screw up so much meat in his life, and when Jeff went to the hot plate ready to give his ticket to Ramsay, he was shut down by him telling he was not prepared to make another order. Jeff revealed that he was trying to appease his tables due to the long wait, but they were in no mood. In the blue kitchen, Wendy ran out of potatoes, and the ladies who were called "bimbos" the first time went back to the kitchen one more time but were shut down even harder by Ramsay, who asked Jean-Philippe to escort them back to plastic surgery. Even though entrées were approved to get out of both kitchens, customers fed up with the wait walked out of the restaurant, with Jean-Philippe calling that night sinking faster than the Titanic. After witnessing this, Ramsay shut down both kitchens. As the blue team cleaned up, Ralph called that night a disaster and ugly for both sides, while Andrew felt that he busted his ass that night no matter what Ramsay said.
Post-mortem[]
With few successes from either kitchen, Ramsay chose the winning team by referring to the customer comments card. Over half of the customers had an experience below average with the red team and got one only dessert, which was praised even though Ramsay bitterly said big deal. Everybody disliked Jeff, and after the former told Ramsay that it was a horrible experience, Ramsay reminded him ironically that he wanted to win his own restaurant. In the blue team, Ralph was liked by most of his customers, and Andrew sent four desserts out, but nobody liked them. In the end, he declared the red team losers but Ramsay told the blue team that they did not win and that they were just safe. Also, he declared Elsie "Best of the Worst" because of her consistency after her disastrous first risotto and asked her to nominate two team members for elimination.
Back in the dorms, Elsie did not like being in that position, and Jimmy did not feel like talking to her as he knew he had no chance of staying after his poor performance. Carolann told Elsie that she kicked ass that night, but Elsie left to lie down for a bit and brought Dewberry with her. Dewberry admitted that while he was not happy being here, he also did not want to leave the competition. While Dewberry feared he would be sent home that night, Elsie promised Dewberry that he would not be going anywhere. Meanwhile, Jeff confined in Wendy that he might be going home because all his tables hated him, and Elsie began to decide who she would nominate.
Elimination[]
Elsie nominated Carolann because of her lack of knowledge, and despite convincing Dewberry that he was not going anywhere, she made him her second nominee because of his lack of energy and interest. After hearing Elsie's nominees, Ramsay told Jimmy and Jeff that both dodged a bullet. During their pleas, Carolann felt that she should not be underestimated despite her lack of experience. In contrast, Dewberry felt he had more of a base knowledge than Carolann that would give him an advantage, which was the best thing he had to offer. However, when Ramsay asked Dewberry what the base was, the latter sheepishly claimed it was in general things. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Carolann because of her lack of teamwork and experience. During her exit interview, Carolann expressed anger that her opportunity was gone and felt extremely disappointed.
While being dismissed, Elsie said she had never been through something stressful like that night before but knew she was there to win, while Dewberry was shocked he was nominated as if he were Best of the Worst next time, he might get revenge. Then, Michael said it was an opportunity in a lifetime before planning on taking out his teammates to get it, and Jessica knew it would only get harder from there.
Ramsay's comment: "Some can handle it, some can't. I'm not interested in the ones who can't!"
Trivia[]
- As this was the debut episode of the entire series, a couple of firsts occur:
- First time the Signature Dish Challenge took place.
- First time the blue team won a service.
- First time Ramsay named somebody the Best of the Worst.
- First time a female contestant was eliminated.
| Hell's Kitchen Season 1 Episodes |
|---|
| Day 1 • Day 2 • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5 • Day 6 • Day 7 • Day 8 • Day 9 • Day 10 |