James Avery

“

I spent 18 hours with you guys today, I give you everything I got, and that's the bullshit you're going to give me in front of Chef Ramsay?! Make me look like a dickhead in a dining room full of people, I'm beside myself right now with that! I can't look at you guys anymore!

”

Staff Profile
Name	James Avery
Hometown	Wall, NJ
Occupation	Sous Chef
Season	11-14, 23-24

James Avery was the Sous Chef for the blue kitchen in Hell's Kitchen, on seasons 11 to 14 but will return in seasons 23 to 24.

Personality

As Ramsay's Sous Chef, James acts as Ramsay's right-hand man in the services. He holds the same standards as Ramsay and will often get irritated by contestants' constant mistakes. While James is not as temperamental as Sous Chef Scott was, he has his limits and, at one point during Season 11, threatened to quit Hell's Kitchen after the blue team put up a pathetic performance. Despite that, he is a personable guy and even told the red team during Season 12 how hard it could be managing both a job as a chef and having a family at the same time.

Main highlights per season

Season 11

• On episode 6, he visited the men at the dorms, brought the raw halibut that got them kicked out of the kitchen, berated them for making him look like a dickhead in front of Ramsay despite hanging 18 hours that day with them, and left by saying he could not work with them anymore.
• On episode 11, he sent Jon and Zach out on tricycles to deliver champagne to the red team as part of their punishment.
• On episode 14, James got curious when the blue team took in a lot of ice during their delivery punishment. When it was revealed that Anthony did not read the invoice correctly, he forced the men to bring back the unneeded ice.

Season 12

• On episode 11, James explained to the red team how hard it was to balance family life and a cooking career, and admitted how tough it was to make sacrifices.

Season 13

• On episode 1, he supervised the blue team's punishment and showed them where to place all the boxes in the dorms. After dinner service, he was sent by Ramsay to gather the blue team after they were ejected from dinner service.
• On episode 9, he told Ramsay about Steve's injured knee, and how he was on the patio.
• On episode 11, he told Ramsay that there were more salmon portions after Sade overcooked their initial batch.
• On episode 13, James accompanied Roe in her shopping spree at Surface. For the first time ever, he and Sous Chef Andi competed against the black jackets and cooked in the red kitchen. While he said that he liked to move fast and furious, he was late on a chicken order. Later, he was caught plating his mashed potatoes even though Ramsay said that was his responsibility. Despite that, the Sous Chefs won by a mile over the black jackets.

Season 14

• On episode 2, he found it funny when Ramsay accidentally locked the blue team in the back pantry during service, and later, was seen helping Ramsay complete service after the men got kicked out of the kitchen.
• On episode 3, he served the men their lunch, which was peanut butter and jellyfish sandwiches, and had to bring Michael back after the latter went up to the dorms to make his lunch. In same episode he also showed Ramsay the way into the dorms as well.
• On episode 5, he was amused when the blue team struggle to break apart the big Parmesan cheese wheel, and then, urged them to win that night's service after the red team bragged about their reward.
• On episode 8, he joined the blue team for lunch during their reward, and told them that he was proud of them for doing well so far. Before service began, he told Ramsay about Bret's slipped disc.
• On episode 14, he and Sous Chef Andi were given the night off, and they ate at service in the dining room.

Season 23

• On episode 3, James told Uri to do what he felt that he needed to do due to the latter's back pain.

Trivia

• He was replaced by Sous Chef Aaron Mitrano as the sous chef for the blue team after Season 14.
• He is the second, and first male, Sous Chef to have their own confessional.
• He appeared in a few episodes of Ramsay's other show, Kitchen Nightmares, before coming in as the blue team's Sous Chef.
• He also appeared in Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back as a ridiculous distraction on Season 3 Episode 2 - Blend on Main.
• He is the fourth staff member of Hell's Kitchen to leave and come back for an eventual season, following Jean-Philippe (Season 1-7, 11-12), Sous Chef Andi (Season 7-14, 16), and Christina (Season 15, 17-22).

Quotes

• (To the blue team) "I spent 18 hours with you guys today, I give you everything I got, and that's the bullshit you're going to give me in front of Chef Ramsay?! Make me look like a dickhead in a dining room full of people, I'm beside myself right now with that! I can't look at you guys anymore!"
• (To the red team about the amounts of days that he spent working in a kitchen) "A lot of 15-hour days, 12-hour days. 19-hour days."
• "This is how I like to work, Fast and Furious!"
• "Yes, one salmon! One guy doin' it all!"
• (When cooking in the red kitchen) "Chef (Ramsay) is just riding my ass right now. I don't know what the fuck I did wrong! Chef's hurting my feelings a little bit."
• (To the blue team) "I never knew how perverted opening a thing of cheese sounded."

Gallery

Sous Chef James and Andi's Intro Spot (Season 11)

Sous Chef James and Andi's Intro Spot (Season 12)

Sous Chef James' Intro Spot (Season 13)

Sous Chef James and Andi's Intro Spot (Season 14)

Sous Chef James

Sous Chef James' Confessional

Ramsay and Sous Chefs James and Andi

Sous Chef James on a night off

External links

• James Avery on Instagram
• James Avery on Twitter