Hell's Kitchen 10 (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Season 10 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on June 4, 2012, on Fox and concluded on September 10, 2012. Chef de Cuisine Christina Wilson won the season and received a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay Steak at the Paris Las Vegas in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef, as Scott Leibfried and Andi van Willigan remained as sous chefs, as did James Lukanik as the maître d'. This season saw an alteration to the show's format, with many episodes now being two-parters, depicting the team challenge and reward/punishment one night, followed by service and elimination the following night. This season is also the first season in Hell's Kitchen history in which all chefs were eliminated normally. In other words, no chef was eliminated either despite being on the winning team, not nominated by red/blue team or Chef Ramsay himself, during dinner service, had to withdraw for medical reasons, or walked out on their own terms.

Opening sequence/credits

The opening sequence of Season 10 of the show, like the previous three seasons, did not take place in the kitchen. Instead, it began with the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, which morphed to "Welcome to Fabulous Hell's Kitchen". This is followed by a magic show-style opening, featuring contestants doing various stunts and tricks, with Chef Ramsay magically appearing at the end.

Credit order: Patrick, Briana, Barbie, Kimmie, Clemenza, Don, Roshni, Royce, Brian, Robyn, Dana, Guy, Justin, Tavon, Tiffany, Christina, Chris, Danielle

Chefs

18 chefs competed in season 10. Full names per official site.

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Robyn Almodovar	31	Executive Sous Chef	Hollywood, Florida
Justin Antiorio	29	Sous Chef	Lyndhurst, New Jersey
Chris Carrero	33	Executive Chef	Queens, New York
Clemenza Caserta	41	Executive Chef	Staten Island, New York
Patrick Cassata	40	Executive Chef	Lombard, Illinois
Dana Cohen	27	Chef Instructor	River Vale, New Jersey
Roshni Gurnani	27	Executive Chef	Boston, Massachusetts
Tavon Hubbard	22	Executive Chef	Washington, D.C.
Tiffany Johnson	30	Sous Chef	Warren, Vermont
Barbie Marshall	34	Catering Chef	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Brian Merel	31	Personal Chef	Chicago, Illinois
Danielle Rimmer	27	Saucier	Bayonne, New Jersey
Don Savage	44	Cafeteria Chef	Houston, Texas
Briana Swanson	32	Personal Chef	New York, New York
Guy Vaknin	28	Executive Catering Chef	New York, New York
Royce Wagner	29	Sous Chef	Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Kimmie Willis	27	Personal Chef	Memphis, Tennessee
Christina Wilson	32	Chef de Cuisine	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Contestant progress

No.	Chef	1001	1002	1003	1004	1005/6	1006/7	1008	1009/10	1011	1012/13	1014	1015	1016	1017	1018/19	1019/20
1	Christina	WIN	LOSE	BoW	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	IN	IN	IN	WINNER
2	Justin	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	BoW	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	IN	IN	IN	RUNNER-UP
3	Dana	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	IN	IN	OUT
4	Barbie	WIN	NOM	NOM	LOSE	NOM	WIN	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOM	LOSE	WIN	IN	NOM	OUT
5	Clemenza	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	BoW	NOM	NOM	LOSE	NOM	NOM	OUT
6	Robyn	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM	BoW	NOM	NOM	NOM	OUT
7	Brian	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	BoW	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
8	Kimmie	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	BoB	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	OUT
9	Tiffany	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM	WIN	OUT
10	Royce	NOM	NOM	BoB	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	OUT
11	Patrick	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	NOM	OUT
12	Roshni	WIN	NOM	NOM	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
13	Guy	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	OUT
14	Danielle	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	OUT
15	Don	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	OUT
16	Briana	WIN	LOSE	OUT
17	Chris	LOSE	OUT
18	Tavon	OUT

{{colorbox}} Contestant was nominated for elimination but prevailed

{{colorbox}} Contestant was nominated for elimination by Chef Ramsay

{{colorbox}} Contestant was eliminated

{{colorbox}} The winner of Hell's Kitchen

{{colorbox}} The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen

Episode guide

Each episode consists of a challenge with a reward, a service and an elimination.

Episode 1

• Original airdate: June 4, 2012
• Introduction: A group of 20 contestants were transported to Hell's Kitchen in a police-escorted SUV motorcade. After they arrived, Sous Chef Scott introduced himself and Sous Chef Andi to the contestants. He mentioned that he had shaved his head bald to demonstrate how badly he originally wanted to work for Chef Ramsay, and he called upon volunteers to have their heads shaved to show how badly they wanted to work for him. It was revealed that Andi had already shaved her head, too. Two contestants volunteered and had their heads shaved. He then called out Danielle and was about to shave her head when Chef Ramsay came on the scene and stopped him. After the break it was then revealed that the two contestants who had their heads shaved were actually friends of Scott's who had been planted in the cast. Further, although Andi's head also appeared to have been shaved, in actuality she was wearing a bald cap, which she removed.
• Signature dishes / team challenge: The women's team (Red) won the challenge, with five dishes chosen by Chef Ramsay to the men's (Blue) team's three. The chefs who received points for their teams (from the first point to the last point) were Robyn, Roshni, Royce, Justin, Briana, Patrick, Dana and Christina. This is the first time in Hell's Kitchen history that the women won the signature dish team challenge.
• Award / punishment: The red team was treated to a steak BBQ with two of Hell's Kitchen's past winners " Rock Harper from Season 3 and Dave Levey from Season 6. The blue team was forced to clean both kitchens as punishment for losing the challenge.
• Service: Both teams had a whole different perspective of the dinner service; the men's team studied the material given to them and were confident and determined; while the women, most of them spending the night drinking and socializing instead of studying the material, struggled on prep and had their doubts. Briana was called on to name the entrées on the menu, and after a slight hesitation (and some pronunciation mistakes), she was able to correctly identify them. The first ticket came in on the red team, with Roshni starting with the scallops, only serving three portions instead of five. Roshni continually struggled on the scallops and was sent out of the kitchen. Back on the blue team, Royce and Tavon were slow on sending out appetizers. Royce had trouble finding the anchovies for his salads and Tavon served a raw pigeon (Ramsay stating: "This fucking pigeon is that raw it can fly!"). Justin brought up his scallops, which Chef Ramsay noted how badly prepared they were (thanks to Tavon). After Tavon laughed nervously, in response to Chef Ramsay's behavior, he threw him out of the kitchen, as he did to Royce when he sent up undercooked spaghetti (which rather angered Clemenza, as he knew it was undercooked). Don was wandering around the whole dinner service, doing nothing, much to the later irritation of his teammates. (He was assigned a task for the entrée stage, but as the blue team never reached it he was not given an opportunity to cook.) On the red team, Christina struggled on the entrées, serving undercooked pieces of Beef Wellington to Chef Ramsay. Back on the blue team, Chris brought up a raw onion tart,causing Chef Ramsay to kick the rest of the blue team out of the kitchen. The red team still struggled on the entrées, and Chef Ramsay ultimately ordered them to shut down, and clean up. (The instruction to clean up is unusual " normally he is so irritated at such points that he immediately banishes them from the kitchen.) Although both teams failed to serve any entrées and were told to "shut it down", the red team was declared the "winners", as they at least completed their appetizer stage. For the first time in Hell's Kitchen history the blue team failed to serve even a single appetizer during dinner service (the nearest previous occurrence to this had been in the first service of season 4, where that season's blue team eventually served their first appetizers after two hours, only to find that all their customers had walked out).
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay asked Patrick for the nominees. The blue team chose Tavon and Don. While Chef Ramsay agreed with the nomination of Tavon, he questioned the team's wisdom of the nomination of Don, saying that he didn't cook any entrées and didn't deserve to be nominated. Ramsay then nominated Royce to take Don's place.
• Elimination: Tavon was chosen to leave Hell's Kitchen as he almost single handedly destroyed any chance of the men finishing service.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Tavon may have been an executive chef at 22, but he did little to impress me in his short stay in Hell's Kitchen."

Episode 2

• Original airdate: June 5, 2012
• Team challenge: A rap group awakens the contestants as Chef Ramsay introduces the next Team Challenge: remove 125 scallops from a large mound of ice and seaweed, then properly open, schuck and cook the scallops to Chef Ramsay's standards " the first team to properly cook and prepare six plates of five scallops each wins. During the collection portion of the challenge, Royce was hit in the face with a scallop and had a noticeable cut on his face, but was able to continue. The red team won again, by successfully cooking and preparing six plates, while the blue team completed only two.
• Award / punishment: The red team take a yacht cruise for a day on Santa Catalina Island. The blue team must clean up the remaining mess outside, as well as prep the kitchens and dining area for service. In addition, Sous Chef Scott serves the men smoothies made out of the rejected scallops from the challenge.
• Service: The service was deemed "Redemption Night", Chef Ramsay specifically wanting flawless scallops from both kitchens. Brian and Christina worked tableside to deliver a shrimp scampi appetizer to tables. On the blue team, Don managed to burn the top of his pizza, and undercook the bottom. On the red team, Robyn and Barbie went at each other " they could not time their food together, serving undercooked food out. On the blue team, Chris had a lot of scallop problems; overcooking, undercooking, and wrong portion size. Royce had trouble making mashed potatoes, which prompted Chef Ramsay to tell him how to make it. Out in the dining room, Brian served raw shrimp tableside. Back on the red team, Barbie continually argued with her teammates and screwed up some more orders on the fish station. Ramsay, fed up with the red team, kicked them all out of the kitchen. Chef Ramsay goes back to a fragmented blue team. After discovering a raw steak, Chef Ramsay kicks the entire blue team out of the kitchen, and ended dinner service. As both teams completed appetizers but have yet to serve a single entrée this season, he deemed both teams as the losers.
• Nominees for elimination: As both teams have lost the service, they each must select two contestants that they feel must leave Hell's Kitchen. Chris nominated himself for the blue team; the rest of the men considered nominating Don for his pizza troubles, but ultimately decided on Royce. The women all agreed on Barbie as their first nominee, and then decided to attempt to rig the elimination process by putting up Roshni, who they knew had a good service and would not be eliminated (though on being questioned by Chef Ramsay, the women claimed to have nominated her because of her bad performance in the previous service).
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay quickly sent Roshni back in line, followed by Royce, who was warned to pick up his game. This left Barbie and Chris, and Chris's admission that he got overwhelmed cooking the scallops ultimately resulted in his elimination, as Chef Ramsay took it as an admission that he was out of his depth in Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "I'm sure that Chris prays that he never sees another scallop. And after tonight, I pray I don't see anymore of him."

Episode 3

• Original airdate: June 11, 2012
• Team challenge: Both teams were challenged to cook a welcoming meal for sixty immigrants who just became U.S. citizens. The menu consisted of a Californian cobb salad appetiser followed by a choice of three entrées. Nebraska beef sliders, a thin New York style pizza and a Wisconsin grilled cheese sandwich. The red team had some initial trouble with Barbie attempting to cook the pizzas far too early, but otherwise turned in an excellent performance and finished service with only a few dishes rejected by Chef Ramsay. The blue team on the other hand had a terrible start, experiencing their own pizza problems when Clemenza undercooked them, and while they eventually rallied they had little hope of catching the women, who won their third challenge in a row. This loss meant the blue team set a new record for the worst start by any team in Hell's Kitchen history, having lost five challenges or services out of five.
• Award / punishment: The red team was rewarded with a trip to San Diego where they were taken on a safari. The blue team was punished by having to do hard labor at the Ballona Wetlands.
• Service: Don and Tiffany were assigned to be servers; Tiffany performed flawlessly in this role, while Don's bad spelling (being unable to spell "appetizer" among other things) slowed him down. Prior to the service, Chef Ramsay made a phone call to Season 1 runner-up Ralph Pagano, who it was mentioned in the first episode is the executive chef at the restaurant where Royce worked prior to coming into Hell's Kitchen. Royce got a pep-talk from Ralph and responded positively, turning in a near-perfect performance on the appetizers, which would see him ultimately be named as the best performer of the night. Clemenza struggled on the meat station, running out of Beef Wellington midway through the service, though fortunately he had more luck with the steaks, and the men eventually managed the first completed service of the season. It was a different story in the red kitchen however, as Briana and Barbie struggled on the fish station, serving up undercooked scallops and overcooked cod. This had a knock-on effect on Kimmie, who started out well but later served up undercooked wellingtons. Roshni made things worse by forgetting that dumplings were supposed to be part of the cod dish, and when she did serve them up they were undercooked. Disgusted by the women's performance, he threw them out of the kitchen, without a single entree having been served. After service, the blue team were deemed to have been the clear winners, with Christina being the only one of the women who Ramsay felt had stepped up to the mark (as of the previous season the Best of the Worst no longer gets to choose nominees for elimination, though are guaranteed to be safe from elimination themselves).
• Nominees for elimination: Briana nominated herself, and the rest of the women decided on Barbie. Chef Ramsay also called out Roshni for her struggles on the garnishes and her succession of bad performances.
• Elimination:In the end Briana was eliminated as Chef Ramsay believed that she was not going to get any stronger in the competition.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Tonight, Briana had a battle with the cod, and the cod won. And that's why her time in Hell's Kitchen was a short one."

Episode 4

• Original airdate: June 12, 2012
• Team challenge: The chefs were awoken early to Chef Ramsay taking them to a lamb pen at a local farm. The challenge was to get as many ingredients off the lambs as possible. The collars and paint were indicators of the ingredient. The teams were then to break off into pairs to create 4 different lamb dishes (rack of lamb, ground lamb, and two others). Both teams were tied at 2 points each, but the blue team clinched their first challenge victory of the season, as the red team were ultimately undone by Barbie and Robyn's rack of lamb being almost totally raw.
• Award / punishment: The blue team was rewarded with a day at the horse races. The red team was punished by having to wash the paint off the sheep (which were delivered to the Hell's Kitchen parking lot), then clean & prep both kitchens for service and finally, eat a lunch of lamb testicles, with Kimmie making fun of the other girls for being grossed out and unable to eat any (while she ate several, seemingly uncaring to the others). During the prep, Danielle started to get angry at Kimmie's attitude (with Kimmie admitting she had no reason for being obnoxious other than wanting to cause problems), resulting in her making fun of Kimmie's weight (saying she weighed "5 million pounds!") and yelling that she was tired of being the "quiet" girl.
• Service: The dinner service started off rocky with Danielle serving undercooked appetizers multiple times. On the blue team, Brian continually undercooked, overcooked, and burned his cod, and ran out halfway through the service and to be replaced with Sea Bass. After a brief moment of celebration calling chef "Baby", he got thrown out of the kitchen. Back on the red team, Robyn and Danielle were having difficulties communicating on their sections. Don started off well on the meat station, despite being a little sluggish and non-communicative. Back on the red team, Roshni had bad timing on her beef wellingtons, and, like Brian, she was thrown out of the kitchen and started arguing that she had a fresh one still waiting. Back on the blue team, Don overcooked his steak after repeatedly saying that new steak will be coming in "one minute" (in reality, it was four minutes). After Ramsay received the overcooked steak, he threw Don out of the kitchen, quickly followed by Robyn and Danielle for their communication issues on the red team. Back on the blue team, Justin volunteered to take over the fish station, and was already cooking the bass when it was discovered Royce has started the bass on his section as well, causing confusion between both of them, Chef Ramsay prompting them both out of the kitchen for not communicating. The remaining chefs on both teams completed dinner service, but both were declared losers on account of the fact that half of the chefs were ejected from service.
• Nominees for elimination: The red team nominated Danielle and Roshni. The blue team nominated Brian and Don.
• Elimination: Don was told to leave Hell's Kitchen due to his lack of improvement in services.
• Team change: Roshni was told to go to the blue team.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Everyone in Hell's Kitchen starts at the bottom. Unfortunately, Don stayed there."

Episode 5

• Original airdate: June 18, 2012
• Team challenge: A special Mexican dinner service/challenge was presented today. Sous Chef Scott brought out a large donkey pinata. Chef Ramsay explained the pinata will burst open, pouring out balls with ingredients labelled on them, each team being allowed 25 ingredients to work on 6 different Mexican dishes. Only 5 would be selected for tasting. Chef Ramsay hit the pinata, only for the contestants to be surprised that the balls were actually dropped from an opening in the ceiling, rather than the pinata. Chef Ramsay had two guest judges, both Mexican. Dana's dish was noted as the best dish of the entire challenge. The red team won the challenge 3 dishes to 2.
• Award / punishment: The red team were able to enjoy the day out by going to one of the guest judges gourmet restaurants for a delicious lunch. Afterwards, they went to an outdoor Salsa dancing class in which they participated. The blue team, however, was stuck doing prep for both kitchens, which included making handmade salsas for the dinner service. The men were on their best behavior with the presence of a female in the kitchen.
• Post award / punishment: With a full day separating the challenge and the service, all the chefs had some time to relax. In particular Tiffany had a lot to drink, and when she overheard Royce making some criticisms of Kimmie's challenge dish, she misinterpreted the situation and told Kimmie that it was Christina, Danielle and Dana who had made the criticisms, leading to a massive argument the next morning.
• Service: It was mentioned that Hell's Kitchen offered two special dishes on the menu celebrating the first ever Mexican night. Service started off with Guy delivering raw lamb to the pass, only to correctly cook it a second time. On the red team, Barbie brought up under-seasoned mussels and was quickly sent back to redo them. Kimmie decided it would be a good idea to place both the fish and meat on the same tray, however Chef Ramsay had a different opinion and was even more disturbed when no one, at first, stepped up to take the blame. Eventually, Kimmie said it was her mistake. Over on the blue team, Guy and Patrick continually struggled with communication, serving up raw food, with Chef Ramsay ejecting them both from the kitchen. Back on the red team, Danielle served raw pork, twice in a row, before being thrown out of the kitchen. Justin and Clemenza were working the meat sections on the blue team. Justin brought up his meat despite Clemenza warning him that it was undercooked. After Ramsay discovered it was raw, he threw them both out of the kitchen. Returning to the red team, Barbie was caught using a thermometer on her chicken, and was shortly thrown out, followed by Tiffany for sending burnt mashed potatoes. On the blue team, Royce sent up burnt chicken skin and was also thrown out. The remaining chefs completed dinner service, however, Chef Ramsay deemed both teams as the losers.
• Nominees for elimination: The red team nominated Danielle and Barbie, while the blue team nominated Guy and Patrick. Barbie argued that she is not the weakest chef on the team, and Chef Ramsay agreed and sent her back in the line. The remaining nominees were left up there with Chef Ramsay about to pick someone when "To be continued" flashed on the screen, ending the episode in a cliffhanger.

Episode 6

• Original airdate: June 19, 2012
• Episode 5 Nominees for elimination (cont'd.): After Chef Ramsay sent Barbie back in line (which was repeated in this episode), he called up Patrick, but he sent Patrick back in line as well.
• Episode 5 Elimination: Danielle was told to leave Hell's Kitchen due to her overconfidence during service.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: No reason was given for Danielle's elimination, nor did she receive the coat hook and burning picture routine.
• Team challenge: Both teams had to prepare dishes for three fashion designer judges " David Meister, Amanda Che and Ina Soltani; they had to make an appetizer and two entrees (one seafood, one poultry). First, Brian and Justin's appetizer was met with many criticisms by the fashionista judges " before they had even tasted the dish. Christina and Dana's dish was met with similar criticisms, making everyone realize how difficult these judges were. However, once the judges tasted the dishes, all three easily decided that Christina and Dana's dishes tasted better, earning the red team a point. Next was poultry, with Roshni and Patrick against Barbie and Tiffany. Despite Patrick making a faux pas describing the dish (saying he uses vinegar to "thin the mucus"), the judges unanimously called his dish better, due to Tiffany making deep fat-fried eggplant after the judges said they didn't want anything fattening, leaving the score tied. Finally, the seafood dishes were judged, with Clemenza, Royce, and Guy against Kimmie and Robyn. The first two judges were split, but the third judge easily chose the men's dish because the red team cooked sea bass instead of the requested swordfish, and the red team's dish had a lack of spices. The blue team wins 2"1.
• Award / punishment: The blue team is treated to a shopping spree in Malibu, complete with a personal shopper, much to the red team's annoyance. The red team has to assemble a runway for Hell's Kitchen's first ever fashion show. Robyn decides to put the runway together while the rest of the team carries parts of the runway inside from a truck; this aggravates Christina, who felt that Robyn only wanted to get out of the heavy lifting. Tension continued to mount on the red team, with former best friends Robyn and Kimmie getting angry at each other over not putting spice in the dish during the challenge, which Kimmie suggested but Robyn ignored. Meanwhile, Barbie and Christina were extremely disgusted by Tiffany, who repeatedly passed gas during the punishment.
• Service: Before service began, Chef Ramsay talks about that night's service format, in which he said that after the first group of models have walked off the runway (one of the models is Eugena Washington from Cycle 7 of America's Next Top Model), they are serving, so timing is absolutely critical for the service. He told Kimmie and Royce that they would be assisting him with plating for their respective teams. Clemenza hastily started cooking scallops before the restaurant even opened; upon questioning, Ramsay found out he had used up four servings of scallops. As Ramsay started to berate him, the episode ended in another To Be Continued cliffhanger.

Episode 7

• Original airdate: June 25, 2012
• Service: The service continued from the previous episode. The red team beat the blue team in the appetizer part of the service by 10 minutes, mainly because Clemenza, on the fish station, was overwhelmed with the orders of scallops. When the swimsuit part of the fashion show was in progress, Chef Ramsay had to distract Guy who had become distracted by the swimsuit models. Clemenza redeemed himself during entrees, but Robyn overcooked her beef and became the target of Ramsay's anger when she suggested getting beef from the blue kitchen. Despite this, both teems subsequently completed service. Chef Ramsay then discovered a leftover tray of swordfish that Clemenza had cooked, resulting in an argument between Clemenza and Royce over who was responsible for the extra fish. The red team's ability to complete their appetizers 10 minutes before blue and Clemenza cooking four servings of scallops too early, while being watched by his team, resulted in Ramsay declaring the red team the winner.
• Nominees for elimination: The blue team almost unanimously picked Clemenza as their first nominee, even though Clemenza argued that he could "only cook so much", but they had trouble deciding between Guy and Brian as their second nominee; while Brian had performed well on the garnishes, many of the men thought he should have done more to help Clemenza when he was struggling. In the end, the team decided on Guy as their second nominee as he held back service.
• Elimination: While the entire team thought Clemenza was the weaker of the two nominees when polled by Chef Ramsay, his impassioned speech to remain in the competition impressed Chef Ramsay, who sent Clemenza back in line and told Guy to take off his jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen as Chef Ramsay felt Guy had no fight-back in him.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Guy's performance in Hell's Kitchen was extremely inconsistent. That is why I know he is not the guy to run Gordon Ramsay Steak."

Episode 8

• Original airdate: June 26, 2012
• Team challenge: The teams were told that this challenge will test the teams' ability to adapt. In front of them were 4 domes, and each dome had 6 ingredients. Every 5 minutes, one of the domes became available for use. Each team member was told to take one ingredient from each dome that match their protein. The blue team put some thought and discussion into which ingredient would go well with what they were working with, but the red team just ran for the domes and grabbed whatever they wanted. The teams were judged by three Michelin-starred chefs, who could each award each dish from 1 to 3 stars. The team who had the most stars based on the dishes would win the challenge. The blue team was in the lead going into the final dish, but Royce's lobster dish had a long hair in it and was not cleaned properly, and thus received a low score. The red team won with 30 stars to the blue team's 29 stars. Christina was the only chef to receive a three-star score from one of the judges.
• Award / punishment: The red team was rewarded with a day at the spa and a set of cookware each. The blue team was told to prepare both kitchens for that night's dinner service. In addition to that, they would have to clean the dorms.
• Service: Tito Ortiz and Sugar Ray Leonard were seated at the Chef's Tables. The ladies had little trouble in the kitchen. Their only problem was Tiffany had trouble controlling the meat station, and used a dirty knife to check a Wellington. But it turned out that the blue team had more trouble. Clemenza had issues with putting out appeitizers, Patrick couldn't serve appectable lobster, and Roshni delivered overcooked meat. Hitting his boiling point, Chef Ramsay kicked the entire blue team out of service, and the red team completed the remaining blue team service in addition to their own service.
• Nominees for elimination: Brian stated he had been voted for elimination and Clemenza was the second nominee. However, Chef Ramsay disagreed, instead nominating Roshni for undercooked meat and Patrick for cold lobster.
• Elimination: In the end Chef Ramsay told Roshni to leave Hell's Kitchen, But not before telling her that she a big heart and to keep her head held high.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Roshni is a small lady with a big heart. Unfortunately, her performance tonight matched her stature."

Episode 9

• Original airdate: July 2, 2012
• Team challenge: The teams spun a giant slot machine, which determines the type of steak and its ingredients one member of each team must cook in 30 minutes. This will be followed by Chef Ramsay tasting the dishes to determine the best dish. As the red team has one extra person, it was decided that Kimmie won't spin, but will choose which dish to cook, with the best dish to be selected by the team members for Chef Ramsay to taste. Firstly, Chef Ramsay called up Dana and Patrick who landed on Flat Iron, Potatoes, Mushroom, Spinach and Blue Cheese. Next, Chef Ramsay called up Christina and Royce who landed on Hanger, Yam, Eggplant, Asparagus and Crab. Next up were Barbie and Brian who landed on New York Strip, Celery Root, Tomatoes, Cauliflower and Shrimp. Next up were Tiffany and Justin who landed on Filet, Beets, Carrots, Zucchini and Chorizo. Finally there was Robyn and Clemenza who landed on Rib Eye, Parsnip, Sweet Corn, Broccoli and Bacon. Kimmie chose to cook the same type of steak (ribeye steak) and ingredients as Robyn is cooking. The blue team won, 3 dishes to two. Robyn's steak was determined by Chef Ramsay to be awful, saying that the team should have chosen Kimmie's steak, which Chef Ramsay found to be delicious and well-prepared.
• Award / punishment: The blue team was rewarded with a shopping spree for kitchenware and utensils, followed by lunch at Comme "?a, a local restaurant; the red team must take a huge side of beef and prepare it for the next night's service.
• Service: Tonight's service is a special steakhouse service, which also includes a kid's menu. Shortly before the start of service, Kimmie picked up a pan containing hot grease, which burned her left hand and arm. As Kimmie is treated for her injuries, she, still reeling from a grudge against Robyn, is concerned that she'll end up dropping out from competition due to her injury, leading to a To Be Continued cliffhanger for the next episode.

Episode 10

• Original airdate: July 3, 2012
• Service: Despite initially being recommended by the medic not to take part in the service, Kimmie decided to stick with it and participate in the service anyway. During the service, the red team committed several mistakes, including leaving Robyn's fish waiting for the pass for up to seventeen minutes. There was also serious infighting among most of the team"?Kimmie, Barbie, Robyn and Tiffany in particular. Over on the blue team, Patrick and Royce were thrown out for their mistakes, including undercooking their steaks; Brian also got some minor negative attention for acting goofy and bizarre on his station, irritating his teammates and receiving a warning from Chef Ramsay to start being serious. When the debacle involving the red team flared up, Chef Ramsay called the remaining blue team members, Clemenza, Brian and Justin, into service to assist the red team while also handling their own service. However, the infighting among the red team members continued, threatening the blue team's efforts to save the service. Then Chef Ramsay lost his patience when Robyn sent a steak that was both raw and cold. At that point, Chef Ramsay threw the entire red team out, leaving the three blue team members to complete service on both sides themselves; Ramsay did commend the three men for their success and teamwork. Despite that, Chef Ramsay still declared both teams losers for their lack of passion, stating that he has "seen more passion in valet parking".
• Nominees for elimination: As both teams were losers, Chef Ramsay has both teams choose two people who think should leave. The blue team easily nominated Patrick and Royce, for their early exits. The red team chose Robyn and Tiffany, in deliberations that continue to be heated.
• Elimination: Patrick was asked to take off his jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen mainly due his continual problems during services.
• Team change: Following Robyn's explanation that the incompetence of Kimmie, Tiffany and Barbie is handicapping her performance, and that she would be better off on the blue team, after Patrick's elimination, Chef Ramsay acknowledged Robyn's request and transferred her to the blue team.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Patrick talked a good game, but he couldn't back it up with his cooking so it was time for him to leave Hell's Kitchen."

Episode 11

• Original airdate: July 9, 2012
• Team challenge: In a special game of craps, each team member rolls a 12-sided die, with each face having a letter; whatever letter is revealed, the contestant must think of a food item beginning with that letter. The blue team went first where Clemenza rolled on H and went for heirloom tomatoes, Justin rolled on D and went for daikon, Robyn rolled on D and went for Dragonfruit, Brian rolled on E and went for edamame and Royce rolled on C and went for chicken. For the red team, Tiffany rolled on C and went for chicory. Barbie rolled on L and went for lamb. Kimmie rolled on T and went for Turnips. Dana rolled on B and went for Brussel Sprouts and Christina rolled on T and went for Truffles. Both teams then had 30 minutes to cook a dish with the ingredients they chose. In a close challenge, Chef Ramsay determined the blue team's dish as the best.
• Award / punishment: The blue team was rewarded with a trip on Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas, where they spend an entire evening at the Paris Las Vegas. Comedian Carrot Top also pops in to meet and greet the contestants. The red team must barbecue a pig for pulled pork, a task that takes several hours overnight, during which an alarm is sounded every hour while they sleep, so they could check on the pork being barbecued.
• Service: During the service, each team must also provide service to a celebrity sitting at the chef's table"?on the blue team side is American Idol season 9 champion Lee DeWyze and season 10 Top 3 finalist Haley Reinhart; on the red team side is soccer pro David Beckham and his son, Brooklyn. The red team's service had only a few minor flaws (with Tiffany mistaking cod for sea bass being the most serious); while the blue team had many mistakes, including the reluctance to pin down a specific time on cooking the food. Also, Royce has made many mistakes in cooking, including giving inaccurate times on the meat station, while Clemenza experienced many problems on the fish station, including overcooking cod. At one point, Chef Ramsay took all the male blue team members aside for a time out, and a pep talk to improve on their teamwork, leaving Robyn to handle cooking herself. However, the blue team men never recovered, having eleven unfulfilled entrée orders remaining, while the red team finished their service; at that point, Chef Ramsay had the red team (except Dana, whom Ramsay ordered to stay on the dessert station) help out the blue team in completing their service, After the dinner service he named the red team obvious winners and the blue team the losers with Robyn being the only good member on that service.
• Nominees for elimination: The losing blue team must choose two nominees to leave Hell's Kitchen"?after deliberation, they have chosen Royce and Clemenza.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay had both Royce and Clemenza remove their jackets. He then told Royce that he must leave Hell's Kitchen, while he gave Clemenza a clean jacket to replace the dirty jacket that he removed.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Royce came in promising a Rolls-Royce service. But instead, his service was like a broken-down car. Time to send Royce to the junkyard."

Episode 12

• Original airdate: July 16, 2012
• Team challenge: Two contestants from each team must compete against competitive eater Joey Chestnut in a chicken wing eating contest; the team members have 60 wings to eat amongst them, while Chestnut has 60 wings to himself. The first to finish their wings will win $500 in cash. Joey wins the contest, taking the $500 cash prize. This is followed by the famous blind taste test, where each contestant (except Kimmie, who volunteered to sit out to even the teams) must identify an ingredient by taste only. The blue team won this challenge, 7 ingredients to the red team's 6. Furthermore, Justin correctly identified all four ingredients in his turn "? a feat never before accomplished in Hell's Kitchen. Brian was the only blue team member other than Justin to correctly identify anything, with neither Clemenza nor Robyn identifying a single item. By contrast, all of the red team members correctly got at least one item, but none of them identified more than two.
• Award / punishment: The blue team got to spend an entire day at the Raging Waters water park in San Dimas, California. The red team had to spend the day taking deliveries of wine, ice, and food; in addition, they had to grind peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, change the oil in the fryers, and peel potatoes. During the course of the day Robyn and Clemenza became allied with each other, while Kimmie repeatedly blew up at Barbie, who she felt was being lazy.
• Service: For this service, each team will create their own menu, each consisting of three appetizers, three entrées and three desserts, submitting them all to Chef Ramsay for approval. Kimmie felt that everything that she suggested was being immediately rejected by the rest of the team, except for barbecue sauce, which they wanted to rename to something that sounded fancier. There was continued friction between Barbie and her teammates due to her slow pace in prep (she took over 2 1/2 hours to prep the mussels), while the first batch of Kimmie's barbecue sauce tasted awful, forcing Christina to have to help her out with it. Dana advised Tiffany that her potatoes were crunchy, and Tiffany promised that she would put them back in the oven. Clemenza stepped out of the preparation for about 45 minutes to clean his jacket after getting it dirty, after learning what Chef Ramsay said in the previous service. Chef Ramsay had issues with the red team's appetizers, but had far more positive comments about their entrées. By contrast, Ramsay didn't like any of the blue team's dishes, which eventually culminated in him finding several small bones in the quail dish that Clemenza had prepared " bones that he noted someone could choke on, leading him to threaten Clemenza with elimination before the service even started. At that point, the episode ended in another To Be Continued cliffhanger.

Episode 13

• Original airdate: July 17, 2012
• Service: Continuing from the previous episode, Chef Ramsay warns the blue team that the food they serve must be of better quality than what was presented in the inspection. Chef Ramsay says that tonight's service will not only feature "your menu, my standards", but they will be graded by the diners, using comment cards. The blue team messed up in all aspects, including running out of the scallop squash flowers (due to it being repeatedly overcooked and undercooked), leading to Robyn suggesting an alternate dish to the diners. At one point Clemenza stated that he had fish cooking in the pan, when he really did not, leading Chef Ramsay to accuse him of lying. After numerous dishes were rejected by Chef Ramsay for being overcooked or undercooked, Chef Ramsay threw the entire blue team out with only one ticket to go, leading to Chef Ramsay and Sous Chef Scott to fill that ticket themselves. The red team also made numerous mistakes, including Christina getting overwhelmed on the flatbreads, Kimmie overcooking the ribeye steak, and Tiffany using a dirty pan to make garnish. The team got stalled near the end of service because Tiffany had neglected to put the potatoes back in the oven during prep, so the gratin dauphinoise was severely undercooked, and when Tiffany back-talked Sous Chef Andi over the issue Andi responded by throwing Tiffany out of service. The red team managed to finish their service; however, Chef Ramsay determined that both teams were the losers, going as far as tearing up the comment cards that the diners submitted.
• Nominees for elimination: As both teams were losers, Chef Ramsay has both teams choose two people who think should leave. The blue team nominated Robyn and Clemenza. The red team chose Tiffany for undercooking the potatoes and, primarily due to her very slow prep time, Barbie. Ramsay indicated that he thought Kimmie should have been nominated in place of Barbie, but accepted the nominations. When asked to justify why she should stay, Robyn started complaining and accusing the men of mistreating her, only for Chef Ramsay to point out that he had already warned her that he wouldn't accept that as an excuse if she started performing badly again. Chef Ramsay also pointed out to Barbie that none of her teammates were happy with her performance and felt that Tiffany wasn't showing much execpt when she's nominated even saying that a chef's passion must come naturally.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay elimitated Tiffany as she not only ruined any small hopes of the ladies finishing service on a good note, he couldn't see a leader in her.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "The most passionate I ever saw Tiffany was moments ago when she was already on her way out. That was just too late."

Episode 14

• Original airdate: July 23, 2012
• Team challenge: A southern gospel choir, the Southern Voices of Victory, serenade the contestants with their rendition of This Little Light of Mine. This led to the next challenge"?each pair of contestants, one from each team, must cook a modernized version of a Southern entrée and side item, each revealed on a fan held by a choir member, that the contestant chooses by their name. Then they have 30 minutes to cook the items, in which they'll be judged by Chef Ramsay and Epicurious editor Tanya Steel on the dish's quality, taste and preparation. The red team won, 3 dishes to the blue team's 1 dishes. Dana's dish was judged best overall, leading for that dish's recipe to be featured on Epicurious.
• Award / punishment: The red team got a photo shoot for Epicurious, which was followed by a trip for lunch at The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. The blue team must prepare for service that night, which also involves baking biscuits and churning butter from scratch.
• Service: Tonight's service is a Southern-style service, featuring a special menu of Southern cuisine. Chef Ramsay especially placed the onus on Kimmie, as she had the extensive experience in cooking Southern cuisine. On both teams, there were minor faults in appetizers, but at the entrée stage, numerous mistakes were made, including Kimmie on the red team undercooking and overcooking catfish, and on the blue team, Robyn undercooking chicken and Brian overcooking fish. When Brian gave a snide answer to Chef Ramsay on how the burnt fish tasted (like "fish"), Chef Ramsay threw him out of the kitchen, only to be talked back in by maître d' James. However, the numerous mistakes continued, to a point where Chef Ramsay threw out both teams and had himself and the sous chefs complete service themselves.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay had each team nominate a contestant that they feel should leave Hell's Kitchen. The red team nominated Kimmie, the first time she was nominated for elimination; while the blue team nominated Robyn.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay called Robyn forward, only to order her back in line. In the end, Kimmie was the one told to leave Hell's Kitchen saying he loved her drive and passion, but felt Kimmie failed to step up in what should've been her night to shine.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "As a woman from Memphis, tonight's Southern cuisine menu should've been an easy walk in the park for Kimmie. But it turned out to be a difficult uphill battle, and that is why it was her time to go."

Episode 15

• Original airdate: July 24, 2012
• Team challenge: The contestants had to prepare three dishes of Chef Ramsay's choosing, all from the regular Hell's Kitchen menu. Only one chef from each team was allowed in the kitchen at a time, for only five minutes. When their time was up, the next chef took his or her place. The previous chef was given 15 seconds to brief the next chef. Chef Ramsay then compared the same dishes from each team for completeness, taste, and appearance to decide the winning team. For the risottos, the blue team's risotto was stuck to the plate while Chef Ramsay made the red team taste their risotto which he said was smokey because it was burnt. Chef Ramsay said the blue team's risotto was crunchy. No one got a point. For the cods, Chef Ramsay asked Clemenza what was missing from the blue team's dish where he said dashi broth, while the red team's cod was raw. Once again no team got a point. Finally for the Lambs, Chef Ramsay said the blue team's sauce was disgusting, was like something out of a gas station and nasty while the red team's lamb was mangled by Barbie. Chef Ramsay could not pick a winning team. This marked the first time in Hell's Kitchen history that neither team won a point and Chef Ramsay could not declare a winning team.
• Punishment: If a team had won, they would have spent the day at Santa Monica, at the beach, enjoying lunch and taking a helicopter tour. But instead, both teams must detail the SUVs and clean the front of the restaurant, as well as prepare for that night's service. Chef Ramsay also said that tonight had to be "redemption" and warned the chefs that if he doesn't get a near-flawless performance, he wasn't going to wait 'til the end of service to get rid of "dead wood".
• Service: As an enticement for performing well in the service, Chef Ramsay announced that six of the contestants will receive black jackets and advance in the competition. The red team did very well in the service, making some minor mistakes at first such as Christina serving a burnt risotto and Dana needlessly cooking each piece of fish in its own pan, but recovered, to a point where they finished their service before the blue team, who failed to get the first entrée out. The blue team on the other hand floundered. Clemenza had trouble putting out multiple appetizers at the same time and Robyn put all her garnishes in the oven and said her teammates told her to, which they quickly denied. Justin performed disappointingly, serving up old halibut after the garnish trouble. Brian had his worst failing to serve meat in the right temperatures and losing control soon after. Unable to handle the blue team's mistakes Chef Ramsay kicked Brian off the meat station and had Barbie take over, who gave perfect results. The red team won, automatically ensuring them black jackets. This defeat meant that this season's blue team set the worst competitive record of any blue team in the history of Hell's Kitchen in terms of dinner services. They were victorious only once in twelve services, losing five outright to the red team as well as suffering six joint losses.
• Nominees for elimination: The losing blue team must nominate two people that feel should leave Hell's Kitchen. They agreed that Robyn should be nominated, but declared that Clemenza and Brian tied for second, as they were unable to reach a consensus. Chef Ramsay, deeming that the blue team was incapable to decide the nominees, had all four team members step forward, effectively nominating the entire team for elimination. Ramsay laid into the blue team before his final decision, noting that all four of them had been consistently far worse than the three remaining red team members, even going so far as to imply that were the option open to him, he would have eliminated the entire blue team there and then.
• Elimination: Justin and Clemenza were first called forward and told to remove their jackets, only to be issued black jackets. This is followed by Robyn and Brian being told to remove their jackets. Chef Ramsay then told Robyn that "Your stay at Hell's Kitchen... continues", leading to her being given a black jacket (this has been the first time since season 8 where the final six reinstating back to black team). At that point, Brian had to leave Hell's Kitchen for giving up on the meat station and not having a more serious attitude.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Brian had a lot of energy and was a funny guy. But after tonight's performance, I wasn't laughing. And that's why he has to leave Hell's Kitchen."

Episode 16

• Original airdate: August 13, 2012
• Team challenge: This challenge, the final 6 chefs were grouped into sets of two, Robyn and Christina, Justin and Barbie, and Dana and Clemenza. They were to taste Chef Lefebvre's and Chef Hatfield's dishes and find out what different ingredients they used in their dishes. This led to the actual challenge, the popular "taste it, make it" challenge, in which each contestant tastes Ramsay's dish to distinguish what ingredients were used in the dish, then cooking the dish based on the looks, taste and texture alone. Given many ingredients, the chefs were to reproduce the dish as well as they can in their groups within the 30-minute timed limit. The winners, by getting the most ingredients right, were Dana and Clemenza.
• Award / punishment: Dana and Clemenza go to Silverwood Lake, where they spend the day jet skiing and having a gourmet picnic. The others must spend the day cleaning and ironing the table linens, as well as cleaning up the dining area, and polishing the glasses and silverware. Justin attempted to avoid doing any ironing, and when James caught onto this, he forced Justin to iron Chef Ramsay's own jackets and aprons.
• Service: For tonight's service, the contestants compete with another team, composed of runner-ups from previous seasons of Hell's Kitchen: Russell Kook II (Season 8), Jay Santos (Season 7), Kevin Cottle (Season 6), Paula DaSilva (Season 5), Bonnie Muirhead (Season 3) and Virginia Dalbeck (Season 2). The runners-up team completed an almost-flawless service, the only snag coming early on when Jay got overwhelmed doing the first fish entrees, forcing Kevin to bail him out. Russell did not endear himself to the female members of his team by constantly calling them "sweetheart". The black team had a few mistakes, including Clemenza cooking a pasta dish which was not on order, Robyn not putting enough dressing on the caesar salads, and Dana having to call Clemenza and then Robyn over to help her on the fish station, only for both to make the situation worse (Clemenza by undercooking the scallops, Robyn by seasoning the scallops too early and then not informing Dana she had done this); at one point, Chef Ramsay took Dana out of the kitchen, telling her that the interference from the other chefs was affecting her cooking. At the end, Chef Ramsay told the black team that their involvement in the service was "not bad". However, the returning chefs team was deemed to have been far better, meaning that one member of the black team would now be eliminated that night.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay told the team that they must select two contestants that should leave Hell's Kitchen. Clemenza and Robyn were nominated by their teammates, as despite the strong criticism by Ramsay of Dana's performance on the fish station, nearly all of the other chefs felt that Dana was not to blame for this, and that Clemenza and Robyn had held her back.
• Elimination: Clemenza was told to step forward, only to be told to get back in line. In the end, Robyn was told to leave Hell's Kitchen for her declining performance and constantly always blaming others for her mistakes.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Making it to the black jackets was a dream come true for Robyn. But cooking against the runners-up was a reality check for her and for me."

Episode 17

• Original airdate: August 20, 2012
• Individual challenge: The contestants each teach a past Miss Teen USA winner to cook a Chicken Parmesan dish in 30 minutes. Barbie won this challenge.
• Award / punishment: Barbie and another contestant of her choice, Justin, enjoy a gourmet Italian lunch, then go kayaking in the canals of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice. The others prepare for a special Italian service the next evening.
• Service: Tonight's service is a special Italian service, featuring a selection of Italian appetizers and entrées. The appetizer stage was a major debacle, in which Barbie incorrectly cooked the risotto numerous times, to a point where Chef Ramsay threatened to throw her out of the competition if she messed up once more. When they reached the last table in the appetiser stage, Chef Ramsay made a bet with Barbie and Clemenza, in which he would pay them $100 if they do not make a mistake on the capellini"?unfortunately, it was overcooked. The entrées was largely uneventful and was successfully completed, though a big mistake happened before service began, when Sous Chef Scott caught Clemenza overtenderizing the chicken, making them too large to serve. Christina initially struggled on the garnish station, burning and underseasoning the first few sides, though improved as the service went on.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay had the team nominate a contestant that they feel should leave Hell's Kitchen. The contestants, however, could not agree on a single contestant, as they were stuck between Barbie and Clemenza, so Chef Ramsay called them both down.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay told Clemenza to leave Hell's Kitchen, As he felt the Clemenza was given one too many chances.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: No reason was given for Clemenza's elimination, nor did he receive the "coat hook and burning picture" routine.
• Epilogue: As Chef Ramsay retired to his office, the "final four" contestants retire to the dorms, where they found champagne and a note from Chef Ramsay, congratulating them for making this far, with a promise of a surprise in the next episode.

Episode 18

• Original airdate: August 27, 2012
• Prologue: Continuing from the last episode, the contestants were presented with a surprise"?their loved-ones pay them a brief visit (Christina's mother and girlfriend, Dana's parents, Barbie's husband and children, and Justin's parents).
• Individual challenge: The contestants are taken to a Bristol Farms supermarket, where they have 10 minutes to spend up to $15 on ingredients for their challenge. Back at Hell's Kitchen, they have 30 minutes to cook their dish. Then three judges, two restauranteurs and a critic for Bon Appétit magazine, determine the price they would pay for their dish; the contestant with the highest average wins. Dana won this challenge for her panko-coated halibut, narrowly beating out Christina. Barbie finished in third place, and Justin finished last after going over-budget and having to drastically cut down his dish, which ended up being panned by the judges.
• Award / punishment: Dana visited the Manhattan Beach Post restaurant in Manhattan Beach, where the chef helps her cook a dish and serves it to very special customers"?her parents. The other contestants must sort the recyclable material from the garbage, as well as prepare for that night's service.
• Service: In this service, each of the chefs took control of the kitchen for part of the service, running the pass and having to spot acts of sabotage that Ramsay and Sous Chef Scott deliberately had set up. Justin was the first to lead the kitchen and did a very strong job overall, spotting that Scott had put crab instead of lobster in a spaghetti, and only having trouble with Dana's lackadaisical attitude on the fish station, which caused Chef Ramsay to personally tell Dana to wake up and show more respect to Justin. Dana herself went next and had a bad start by struggling to get her orders across, then failing to spot that she had been given a risotto that had been seasoned with sugar instead of salt, though she found her rhythm as the service continued. Barbie was third, and despite spotting that she had been given mashed celeriac instead of mashed potato, she kept addressing her orders to the diners instead of the chefs, and also rejected a risotto from Justin but neglected to tell Dana that the scallops needed recooking as a consequence. Christina was the last one to lead the kitchen, and she too had a rough start when Dana kept getting her times wrong and Christina refused to push her harder, causing Chef Ramsay to accuse Christina of allowing her friendship with Dana to interfere with her judgement. Christina became more vocal and decisive after that, and led the kitchen without too much trouble, also spotting that she had been given the wrong garnish for one dish. The chefs turned in generally solid performances on their stations, with Dana's weak performance on the fish being the only notable exception.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay announced that two contestants will leave Hell's Kitchen, leading to the final service. After each contestant gave their reason why they wanted to stay, Chef Ramsay told Barbie that she must leave Hell's Kitchen but not before praising her for her improvement and hard work during her time in the competition. The second contestant to leave is held over for the next episode.

Episode 19

• Original airdate: September 4, 2012
• Episode 18 elimination (cont'd.): Continuing from last episode, Chef Ramsay determined that the remaining three contestants were so close to each other, that he wished that they could all compete in the final service; however, he had to decide who else must leave. In doing so, he named the contestants who would be competing in the final service " Christina and Justin, leaving Dana as the one to leave Hell's Kitchen, with Chef Ramsay praising her performance, but saying she wasn't yet ready to be a head chef based on tonight service. However, Chef Ramsay let Dana keep her jacket as a token of her success up to that point.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: No reasons were given for Barbie and Dana's eliminations, nor they received the coat hook and burning picture.
• Early preparation: Chef Ramsay told Christina and Justin to create a menu featuring four appetizers, four entrées and three desserts. Before doing so, he gave each of them a new jacket. To assist them in the menu creation, Chef Ramsay sent both of them on a private jet to Las Vegas, where they met with Sous Chefs Scott and Andi poolside at the Paris Las Vegas. While there, they spent the day relaxing and having fun, including spending time enjoying dinner with their loved ones. Later that evening, they caught a show starring Penn & Teller, which featured Chef Ramsay as part of a magic trick. He then revealed that Penn & Teller's show was just a ruse, leading directly into the final individual challenge.
• Individual challenge: Christina and Justin each had one hour to get into their chef's whites and cook five entrées, each of them being judged by five well-renowned chefs, including Wolfgang Puck. Christina won this challenge, three entrées to Justin's two.
• Team selection: Eight of the last nine eliminated contestants returned for the finale (Tiffany did not return; instead, Patrick came in her place and was the last contestant to be eliminated prior to top ten), with each team getting four members. For the selection, Chef Ramsay had them flown to Las Vegas, where Christina and Justin had to choose which team members should belong on their team. Christina, for winning the challenge, got first choice. She chose Dana, Patrick, Kimmie, and Robyn, while Justin chose Barbie, Brian, Royce, and was left with Clemenza when Christina picked Robyn.
• Pre-service: Back at Hell's Kitchen, shortly before midnight the night before the final service, Christina and Justin briefed their teammates on the night's menu. However, Justin was irritated at Clemenza, as he was tired, not paying attention, and was showing no interest in taking part in the final service. Clemenza got frustrated and began to walk out. At that point, the episode ended in a final To Be Continued cliffhanger.

Episode 20

• Original airdate: September 10, 2012
• Pre-service (cont'd.): While Clemenza was less than enthused about taking part in the final service, he grudgingly decided to take part, as he felt that it was Justin's pride on the line. The following morning, everyone gathered with Christina or Justin on one final briefing before heading to the kitchen. Clemenza did not show up at his briefing, thinking that Justin would just forget about him and move on; however, Justin came and told Clemenza to come and join in. During the final preparations, Chef Ramsay gave each of the night's menu items a taste test, identifying which dishes need tweaking. After everything was all set and one final briefing with the participants, Chef Ramsay told James to open Hell's Kitchen for its 140th service.
• Service: The service on both teams were quite rocky during the duration"?on Justin's Blue team, Clemenza has made several mistakes, including burning the bruschetta, and Royce serving the crab cakes too raw and, on the second try, too dry. Royce had also made some errors in sending out underdone meat; at one time, one of the diners sent back a plate because it was too cold. And later, Barbie made numerous mistakes on the ribeye steak, to a point where they ran out of it; after conferring with Justin and the person who placed the order, they served filet mignon as a substitute. On Christina's Red team, she was keeping a close watch on Robyn, as she did not trust her, based on her past performance; however, it was her best friend Dana who was the one that she had trouble trusting; the halibut that Dana cooked was deemed underdone by Christina, but Dana kept insisting that it was done correctly, to a point where Sous Chef Andi and, summarily, Chef Ramsay, had to intervene, which he determined that Christina was right. Near the end of the service, another fish dish, the final dish of the service for the Red team, was taken to the pass, which was not done correctly, leading Chef Ramsay to ask Christina whether she should let it go as is, or reject it and have it done over; she wisely rejected it. In the end, both teams completed service successfully.
• Winner: Immediately following the service, Chef Ramsay jokingly told the team members that he would decide the winner then and there, telling them that Tavon (who was the first person eliminated this season) was the winner. He then dismissed the team members and told Justin and Christina to wait in the dorms, while Chef Ramsay decides who the real winner is. After looking at the night's service, the diners' comment cards, and their performance during the season as a whole, he made a decision and had Justin and Christina come to his office. After some encouraging words about their time on Hell's Kitchen and their future careers, the two chefs each stood before a closed door; whoever's door opened would be the winner. Christina's door opened, making her the tenth winner of Hell's Kitchen. During the celebration, Christina hung her portrait on the Wall of Fame, joining the other nine winners of the competition.
• Chef Ramsay's reason: "Christina's passion and talent are undeniable. She's a strong leader who is totally at home in the kitchen. I know I'm not rolling the dice with her in Vegas because she is the real deal."

Ratings

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Due to the 2012 Summer Olympics on the network's rival NBC network, no episodes were aired between July 30"31 or August 6"7, 2012. Instead, Fox replayed episodes 12 and 13 on July 30, and 14 and 15 on August 6, 2012.

Episode	First Air Date	Rating (18"49)	Share (18"49)	Viewers (millions)	Nightly rank	Weekly rank
1	June 4, 2012	2.4	7	5.46	4	25
2	June 5, 2012	2.1	7	4.87	3
3	June 11, 2012	2.8	9	6.25	3	16
4	June 12, 2012	2.2	7	5.32	7
5	June 18, 2012	2.5	8	5.65	6
6	June 19, 2012	2.2	7	5.34	8
7	June 25, 2012	2.4	7	5.66	6
8	June 26, 2012	2.3	7	5.51	6
9	July 2, 2012	2.4	8	5.83	4	16
10	July 3, 2012	2.0	8	5.07	6	25
11	July 9, 2012	2.5	8	6.01	2	12
12	July 16, 2012	2.6	8	6.33	2 (tie)	10
13	July 17, 2012	2.5	8	6.02	4	14
14	July 23, 2012	2.6	8	6.46	1	10
15	July 24, 2012	2.6	9	6.23	3	12
16	August 13, 2012	2.7	7	6.58	1	13
17	August 20, 2012	2.6	7	6.23	1	11
18	August 27, 2012	2.9	8	6.87	1	11
19	September 4, 2012	2.6	8	6.17	5	18
20	September 10, 2012	2.5	7	6.27	4

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