Service

Service
Gameplay
Description	A recurring feature of the show where the chefs cook for an entire dining room for dinner.

Services are one of the most common parts of Hell's Kitchen and are featured in almost every episode since the start of the show.

Format

The most common and recurring form of services is during dinner time. Usually beginning in the early evening, both the red and blue teams cook in their respective kitchens that are outfitted with top-of-the-line equipment such as ovens, fryers, grills, and hot tops. Each team has five unique stations that one or more of the chefs must man for a service: appetizers, fish, meat, garnish, and dessert, but on some occasions, a chef would cook tableside in the dining room. There have also been occasions where chefs were assigned as waiters/assistant maître d's for the night.

The main goal of services is to complete all the orders and feed everybody in the dining room. However, it's a goal that's easier said than done in a lot of services. Ramsay mans the pass as both Head Chef and expediter, most of the time checking over food the chefs send to the hot pass along with his Sous Chefs. If the food is deemed acceptable, it will be sent out. If it is not, Ramsay will reject it, although there are occasions where improperly cooked food was sent to a customer. Should a chef perform poorly, they will normally be ejected back to the dorms, but in severe cases, the chef can be eliminated right on the spot. In other cases, Ramsay can simply kick an entire team from the kitchen. If both teams perform poorly, Ramsay will shut down the restaurant. The winning team is determined by a few factors:

• If they completed the service first.
• If they received a higher rating from customer comment cards.
• If they served more food before a shutdown.
• If one team remained in the kitchen, and their performance was worthy of a win.

Stations

Stations are in almost every episode along with dinner service, in which the contestants split up into teams (or a team in black jackets) to get food out for customers.

Every dinner service each contestant works in a different station with 1 or more people on each station depending on the number of contestants left:

Primary Stations

• Meat: Responsible for cooking red meat and chicken.
• Appetizer: Cooks risottos and other appetizers. (Sometimes split as cold and hot appetizers.)
• Garnish: Cooks the sides for entrees and appetizers.
• Dessert: Cooks sweets.
• Fish: Responsible for cooking seafood related food for both appetizers, and entrees.

Secondary Station

• Tableside: Goes around the dining area serving a quick meal.

Other stations

Different meals are added at times which leads to new stations. At times Gordon also assigns one of the contestants as waiters.

Former and recurring stations:

• Vegetable: Cooks vegetables. (Mostly done by garnish)
• Poultry: Responsible for cooking chicken. (Mostly done by Meat)
• Pizza: Responsible for making a full pizza.
• Waiter: Serves customers and takes orders.
• Assistant Maître D'hôtel: Same as waiter but has more control over the dining room.
• Floater: Supports their team.
• Plating: Plates food.
• Kitchen Donkey: Runs around sweeping and cleaning stuff.

Tableside

Tableside is a station that has a contestant go around the dining room serving a special for the customers. This station is rarely present in services.

Tableside stations:

• Salad (Recurring)
• Clam Special (Recurring)
• Chicken special (Season 4, Episode 4)
• Lobster Special (Season 11, Episode 3)
• Dim Sums (Season 11, Episode 7)
• Prime Rib (Season 9, Episode 2)
• Grilled Cheese sandwich (Season 15, Episode 5)
• Rock Shrimp Pesto Tagliatelle (Season 16, Episode 3)
• Fruit Flambe (Season 1, Episode 7)
• Octopus Romanesco (Season 15, Episode 6)

Trivia

• The dessert station has had the lowest number of subsequent eliminations of any primary station at three.
• Overall, tableside has the fewest eliminations with just one.

Variants

On occasion, Ramsay will change things up and introduce different services to the chefs.

Double Seating Service

Season 7's Barbecue Double Service, with the red team cooking and the blue team serving as waiters

Introduced in Season 1, this type of service would be used if a themed service was overbooked. To solve that situation, Ramsay would host a double seating where one team cooks for two hours during the first seating, while the other acts as waiters for that time and the second seating would be vice versa.

Seasons used

Season	Theme
Season 1	Pasta themed
Season 5	Steakhouse themed
Season 7	Barbecue themed
Season 9	Steakhouse themed

Trivia

• Apart from Season 9, the winning team from this type of service cooked during the second seating.
• The blue team won this type the most with two seasons (Season 1 and Season 7 ).

Red Menu vs. Blue Menu Service

The Red Menu vs. Blue Menu.

Introduced in Season 1, this type of service would be used to test both teams in their creativity and teamwork by creating their own menu. Both teams are given time to come up with their own menu items for the service, using a board to write down ideas. While the menu items are made by the chefs alone, they still must match Ramsay's standards. This type was used in the first 8 seasons, and Seasons 10-12.

Trivia

• The red team won this type the most with five seasons (Seasons 1, 4, 5, 11, and 12 ).

Service Challenge

More info at Service Challenge.

Introduced in Season 2, this type of service happens other than dinner time, but they are treated more as team challenges.

Special Event Service

Season 6's Welcome Home Party

Introduced in Season 3, this type of service was used when Hell's Kitchen hosted events, such as weddings, birthdays, or other parties. The day before the service began, both teams would compete in the Special Events Planning Challenge where they must create dishes that match the host's requests. The winning dishes would be featured in the following service.

List of Special Events held

Season	Theme
Season 3	Wedding Reception
Season 4	Sweet 16 Party
Season 5	Bar Mitzvah
Season 6	Welcome Home Party
Season 7	50th Wedding Anniversary
Season 8	Prom Night
Season 9	20th High School Reunion
Season 10	Fashion Show
Season 11	Quinceañera
Season 12	160th Sorority Anniversary
Season 13	Dog Show
Season 14	Homecoming
Season 15	Sous Chef Andi’s Wedding Reception
Season 16	Invitational Ballroom Competition
Season 18	Tilly Ramsay’s Sweet 16th Party
Season 20	Megan Ramsay's 21st Party
Season 21	Trenton and Macee's Wedding Reception

Trivia

• The blue team has won this type of service the most with eight seasons (Seasons 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, and 20 )
• Robert and Trev are the only contestant to perform in this type of service twice and win it both times (Robert won it in both Seasons 5 and 6, while Trev won it in both Seasons 8 and 18 ).
• Seasons 1, 2, 17, and 19 are the only seasons to date to not use this type of service.
• Seasons 11, 15, and 21 are the only seasons to feature joint-losses.

Family Night

Season 8 Family Night

Introduced in Season 4, Ramsay would open Hell’s Kitchen to families, allowing the families to bring their kids to the restaurant. In addition to the classic menu, a special kid’s menu is added featuring items such as burgers, macaroni and cheese, and pizza. This has occurred in Season 4, and Seasons 7-16.

Trivia

• The blue team has won this type of service the most with four seasons (Seasons 7, 9, 13, and 14 ).
• Seasons 10 and 12 are the only seasons that combined family night with a themed service (Season 10 had a Steak-Family Night while Season 12 had an Italian-Family Night ).

Private Night service

Season 9's Charity Night

Introduced in Season 9, this type of service closes Hell's Kitchen to the public, and Ramsay invites in exclusive guests from either charities or honoring servicemen. These services have a fixed course menu where not only do both teams have to serve them on time, but one chef from each team must lead a course.

Trivia

• The blue team have won this type of service the most with four seasons (Seasons 9, 14, 17, and 18 )
• Milly and Nick are the first pair of contestants to win this type of service in both of their runs (both won in both Seasons 14 and 17). Heather is the first female chef to win this type of service in both of her runs (she won in both Seasons 16 and 18).

Returning Veterans Service

The Returning Veterans in Season 9

From Seasons 9 to 11, Ramsay would test the black jacket chefs in their first dinner service by bringing in a team formed of previous chefs that competed in previous seasons. The two teams would compete against each other in the dinner service, cooking in different kitchens. The winner is decided by performance and, if applicable, the customer comment cards.

A similar service was used in season 13, only in this instance the black jackets faced off against the sous chefs and Ramsay himself. This service was mainly determined by overall performance and who could finish service first.

History

• Season 9 (Black Jacket Veterans team)
• Season 10 (Runner-Up team)
• Season 11 (Champion team)
• Season 13 (Sous Chefs and Gordon Ramsay)

Returning Chef	Season/Placement
Ben Walanka	Season 5/4th place
Van Hurd	Season 6/6th place
Tennille Middleton	Season 6/4th place
Trev McGrath	Season 8/4th place
Jillian Flathers	Season 8/3rd place

Returning Chef	Season
Virginia Dalbeck	Season 2
Bonnie Muirhead	Season 3
Paula DaSilva	Season 5
Kevin Cottle	Season 6
Jay Santos	Season 7
Russell Kook	Season 8

Returning Chef	Season
Rock Harper	Season 3
Christina Machamer	Season 4
Dave Levey	Season 6
Nona Sivley	Season 8
Paul Niedermann	Season 9

Staff	Occupation
Gordon Ramsay	Host/Head Chef
James Avery	Blue Team Sous Chef
Andi Van Willigan	Red Team Sous Chef

Trivia

• Season 9 is the only season where the black jackets won against a returning team. The following two seasons had the returning team as the victors.
• Paul is the only person to perform in this service more than once. He is also the only person to compete in two different scenarios (a black jacket chef in Season 9, and a returning champion in Season 11).
• Ben, Van, Trev, and Kevin would later return to compete again as All Star contestants in Seasons 17 and 18.

Sous Chef Service

Season 15's Ashley serving as Ramsay's Sous Chef

From Seasons 14 to 16, Ramsay would give the Sous Chefs the night off and enlist the black jacket chefs to perform as his Sous Chef for the night. One at a time, Ramsay will call on a chef to stand next to him and perform as his Sous Chef. This includes expediting orders, checking food on the pass, and helping Ramsay plate.

This service is considered a light version of the Running the Pass Service as, while similar in design, it is different as Ramsay is still active as the Head Chef.

Trivia

• Season 14 is the only season where this service happened as the second black jacket service. Seasons 15 and 16 had it as the first black jacket dinner service.
• Season 16's Heidi is the only chef to date that did not perform as Ramsay's Sous Chef. This was due to the black jacket team getting kicked out before her turn came around.

Other Themed services

On some occasions, Ramsay will change the menu up and host special types of dinner services with a theme (be it cultural or restaurant themed). They are not connected to the other services above.

List of Themed Services used

Theme	Seasons used
Date Night	Season 6, Season 9
Italian Night	Season 8, Season 10, Season 13, Season 17, Season 19
Mexican Night	Season 10
Southern Night	Season 10
Breakfast Service	Season 11
Steak Night	Season 11, Season 14, Season 18, Season 19 , Season 20 Season 21
Brunch Service	Season 12, Season 15
Gastropub Night	Season 12, Season 14
Cowboy Steak Night	Season 15

Running the Pass Service

Season 12's Scott running the pass

Traditionally the second to last dinner service, Ramsay will have the last 3-4 chefs take turns running the pass. In Season 1, this was done as a dress rehearsal service for finalists Michael and Ralph. It was done to showcase their strong and weak points in a way to prepare for the final dinner service. From Season 2 onward, it was the final black jackets service as Ramsay would have either the final three or four run the pass and test their capabilities of running a kitchen. The chef running the pass is tasked with calling out orders, checking the food, and keeping time from the other chefs. Also, Ramsay will have the Sous Chefs run the station the chef was at before running the pass.

Ramsay also uses this service as a test on how well the chefs can uphold the quality he holds. At certain points, Ramsay will either have the Sous Chefs, the Maître D’, or himself make intentional sabotages, such as sending up the wrong protein, replacing the purée for tasting, or sending up improperly written tickets. It’s up to the chefs themselves to figure out the mistakes, and Ramsay will not say anything until they either notice it or not. This service is used to decide who makes it into the final two, and compete in the final dinner service.

Trivia

• Season 1 is the only season to have this service prior to final dinner service after the finalists are decided.

Final Dinner Service

More info at Final Service.

The final dinner service is the final test for the final two and serves as a simulation of running their own restaurant.

Service Type List

Service Type (excludes challenges)	Season
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Double Seating
Red Menu vs. Blue Menu
Wedding Reception
Sweet 16 Party
Bar Mitzvah
Welcome Home Party
50th Wedding Aniversary
Prom Night
20th High School Reunion
Fashion Show
Quinceañera
160th Sorority Anniversary
Dog Show
Homecoming
Andi's Wedding Reception
Invitational Ballroom Competition
Tilly Ramsay's Sweet 16 Party
Megan Ramsay's 21st Party
Trenton and Macee's Wedding Reception
Family Night
Charity Night
Returning Veterans
Sous Chef
Date Night
Italian Night
Mexican Night
Southern Night
Breakfast Service
Steak Night
Brunch Service
Gastropub Night
Cowboy Steak Night
Running the Pass

Trivia

• Seasons 4, 7, 20, and 21 holds the record for most service joint victories with 2.
• Seasons 10, 11, and 12 holds the record for most service joint losses with 6.
• Season 1 is the only season to not have any service joint losses.
• Season 16's red team holds the record for most service wins with 8.
• Including joint victories, Season 7's blue team holds the record for the most service wins, with 7.
• Excluding joint victories, Season 14's blue team holds the record for the most service wins, with 6.
• Including joint victories, Season 7's blue team holds the record for the most consecutive service wins, with 5.
• Excluding joint victories, Season 6, 7, 15, 18's blue team holds the record for the most consecutive service wins, with 3.
• Including joint victories, Season 4's red team holds the record for the most consecutive service wins out of every red team, with 4.
• Season 6's red team and Season 10's blue team hold the record for the least dinner service wins from their respective teams, with 1.
  • Season 6's red team holds the record for the most consecutive dinner service losses from the first dinner service, with 6.
  • Season 10's blue team holds the record for the most consecutive dinner service losses, with 9.
  • They also hold the record for most service defeats from their respective teams, with 9 and 11 respectively. The former of which is tied with Season 11's red team and the latter of which is tied with Season 12's blue team.
  • However, Season 7's red team holds the record the the least dinner service wins outside of joint victories, with zero.
• Season 10's Justin holds the record for most ejections in a season of any finalist, with 6.
• Season 14's Meghan holds the record of most ejections in a season of any winner, with 5.
• Season 16's blue team holds the record of most ejections in a season, with 7.
• Season 16's Paulie holds the record for most ejections by a chef alone in a single season, with 8.
• Michelle holds the record for the most ejections by a chef alone across multiple seasons, with 9 (five in Season 14 and four in Season 17).
• Heather holds the record for most service wins in her entire run with 14 (she won eight in Season 16, and six in Season 18).
• Seasons 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22 are the only seasons to date to contain at least one episode that did not have a dinner service (excluding multi-parters)
  • Seasons 12, 14, 17-present held a Cook For Your Life Challenge instead of a dinner service.
  • Seasons 16-present held a Black Jacket Challenge instead of a dinner service.