James Lukanik

“

Everybody's really happy, apart from your family.

”

Staff Profile
Name	James Lukanik
Occupation	Maître d'hôtel
Season	8-10

James Lukanik was the Maître d'hôtel of Hell's Kitchen, on seasons 8-10.

Personality

As the Maître d'hôtel, James served as the front of the house of Hell's Kitchen and was the person handing out tickets to Ramsay more than often. He was similar to Jean-Philippe as they were both strict but fair to the contestants and got exasperated with their constant mistakes.

Main highlights per season

Season 8

• On episode 1, James made his debut and revealed himself to the new chefs when they arrived at Hell's Kitchen. He took the chefs over to see LA Market and was seen during the blue team's reward.
• On episode 2, James found out that Vinny told a table not to order sides and brought him over to Ramsay.
• On episode 4, he informed Ramsay about a table that was going to have a proposal and kept tabs on it for the remainder of the night.
• On episode 5, James supervised the blue team's punishment and annoyingly warned Rob not to get any creases on the lines when the latter jokingly pretended to use one as his prom dress. Later on, he sternly warned Russell to show some respect to the prom committee when the latter was giving them attitude.
• On episode 10, James met the blue team at Sur La Table and gave them their cash for their shopping spree reward. During dinner service, he kept tabs on Josiah Citrin, even going into the blue kitchen to remind Vinny that they ate at Citrin's Melisse restaurant the day before when the latter was struggling.
• On episode 12, James was seen supervising the remaining chefs during their punishment.

Season 9

• On episode 10, James joined the red team in their horseback reward, coming in wearing traditional British horse riding gear.

Season 10

• On episode 5, James wore a sombrero during Mexican Night, to Ramsay's disbelief.
• On episode 7, James served as the MC for the Fashion Night dinner service.
• On episode 14, James convinced Brian not to walk out of the competition after the latter was kicked out of the kitchen, reminding him that Ramsay did not want a wimp who cracked.
• On episode 15, James showed both teams the convertible that would have driven the winning team to their reward, but ended up supervising both teams during their punishment.
• On episode 16, James supervised four of the six chefs during their punishment, cleaning the entire dining room, and gave out gave out what he wanted to work on. When he caught Justin trying to weasel out on ironing, he gave the latter both his own shirts and Ramsay’s jackets to iron.

Trivia

• He was the maître d' who lasted the least amount of time in Hell's Kitchen, with three seasons.

Quotes

• (To the blue team during punishment for prom committee) "Hey, guys. Come on. These are clients of Hell’s Kitchen. Stop being disrespectful! Get on with the job, get it done, and show a little bit of respect. Alright?"
• (To Ramsay during Family Night) "Everybody's really happy, apart from your family.”
• (Explaining the punishment to both teams) “Enough about that, ‘cause that’s all winner stuff and we’re a bunch of losers, at the moment. So, we’re gonna clean!”
• (Upon learning that Justin does not iron) “Oh my god! Justin is gonna learn how to iron today!”

Gallery

James' Intro Spot (Season 8)

James' Intro Spot (Season 9)

James' Intro Spot (Season 10)

James

James during Mexican Night