Hell's Kitchen (U.S. season 6)

Sixteen new contestants arrive at Hell's Kitchen and meet with Jean-Philippe at the front entrance. He shows them tips from former contestants: Bonnie Muirhead and Aaron Song (season 3) and Colleen Cleek (season 5) to avoid mistakes in future dinner services.

Team challenge: For the first time in this series, the signature dish presentation is being doubled in the first team challenge, and the chefs are divided into men (blue) and women (red) teams. The team with the most dishes appreciated by Ramsay would win the challenge. Tek, Tennille, Tony, Jim and Van all impressed Ramsay with their dishes. Dave and Joseph earned compliments for the meat that they cooked, but both failed to cook the vegetables properly and lost out. Kevin had cooked his filet steak well, but his choice of using a coffee sauce cost him. Ramsay disapproves Ariel's duck as it was badly undercooked, so was Suzanne's risotto, and Andy and Lovely's dishes fell flat. Amanda is berated for making a margarita french toast dish which Ramsay says takes 3 minutes to make, and seemingly attempting to get Ramsay drunk on tequila. Even Louie's sausage gravy was found disgusting. Melinda's dish misses its main component: a lobster tail. In the end, the men won the challenge 3-2.

Reward/punishment: The men were rewarded to a lunch at Hell's Kitchen featuring dishes from Ramsay's London West Hollywood restaurant. The women had to clean both kitchens.

Dinner service: Season five contestant Robert Hesse and his wife were the guests for the night's dinner service. The women got off to a bad start, Lovely sent fondants to the pass before the restaurant had even opened, and burnt them as well. Later she left the kitchen for nearly an hour. While Melinda had to cook the same pasta dish nine times as Tek did not manage to deliver an acceptable serving of scallops for her dish. This wasted much pasta, especially undercooked pasta which was binned instead of lowering heat to save it. The errors were not only on the appetizer station, as Amanda puts the salmon wraps in the freezer instead of the fridge. For the men, Jim had well-cooked scallops on his first attempt, but cooked the wrong amount. Both he and Kevin managed to get a steady supply of appetizers moving out of the blue kitchen. When they reach the entree stage, Louie puts raw lamb in the oven without seasoning or searing the rack. Louie also tried cooking his own garnishes at the meat station. When Ramsay saw that he quickly stopped him from doing Joseph's work. Louie's lamb finally made it to the pass as poorly cut pieces of meat. Ramsay named the men the winning team on being able to served a few entrées.

Automatic elimination: After discovering that Louie had wasted a huge amount of lamb over the course of the night and served poorly carved pieces, Ramsay lost his temper and eliminated him on the spot. Ramsay ordered both kitchens to be shut down.

Robert's return: After both kitchens closed, Ramsay went out into the dining room to speak to Robert, and personally invited him back into Hell's Kitchen for another chance to win the competition. He accepted Ramsay's invitation and lined up with the men for the post-mortem.

Nominees for elimination: The women nominated Amanda and Melinda, although Amanda thought that Lovely should be up instead of her.

Elimination: After being with more issues on Amanda's frozen salmon and Melinda's pasta fiasco, Ramsay eliminated Melinda, feeling the issues with the pasta doomed the women from start.

Team member added: After the elimination, Ramsay ordered Robert to join the women.

Team challenge: Each chef must prep shrimp for the next night's service, with each team scoring one point for each shrimp perfectly prepared. The red team had an extra member and Lovely sat out. Sabrina gets the good start with 7 and as well as Amanda with even 9, followed by Tek and Ariel with 6 shrimps, while Suzanne has 10 shrimp, and Robert manages with underwhelming 4, leaving the final total at 44. The first two members of the blue team posted the same scores as their red team counterparts, Andy and Van having 7 and 9; Tony then continued with 9. Joseph and Dave only managed 5 and 4, and Ramsay disappointed then rebounded, when Kevin had 9, and Jim needed two shrimp to make a total score of 45 shrimp for the win. The blue team eventually won the challenge.

Reward/punishment: The blue team eats at The Cannery Restaurant in Newport Beach, followed by dessert on a yacht. The red team prepared shrimp and lemon wedges for the service. Meanwhile, at the Cannery, Joseph draws attention from his teammates with disrespectful comments towards Ramsay, that he just wanted to cook and was learning nothing by eating lunch. Dave criticized him for his comments.

Dinner service: Ramsay puts Van and Tennille to cook and serve scampi in the dining room. In the blue kitchen, Tony had a hard time preparing grapefruit to a point where Chef Ramsay threatened to kick him out of the building. Van accidentally serves customers at the other team's table, and he chooses to ignore Jean-Philippe's admonition to respect the dining room. That leads to a shouting match, Ramsay pulls them out of the kitchen to reprimand them on their behavior. Tony and Kevin weren't able to send out fish. At the red team, Tennille faces not only Ramsay's anger, but also her team's for having served undercooked shrimp to a woman who was pregnant. Lovely keeps burning her fish, and forgets to turn the gas on. When both Andy and Sabrina had trouble cooking chicken, the service was a lost cause, and Ramsay orders the chefs to make shrimp cocktails for the diners (that make quick stress with no requirement to cook), causing both kitchens to be shut down. The service turns worse and Ramsay declares no winner.

Joseph's exit: Following the replay of the previous episode where Joseph's confrontation started, security is called in to quell the tensions between Joseph and Ramsay. Joseph calls Ramsay "nothing but a bitch" and stands his ground, and Ramsay stands his own ground and tells Joseph he has no respect before asking him to leave the competition, marking the show's first voluntary exit at elimination. Outside the restaurant, Joseph gives an insulting exit interview where, while smoking a cigarette, he states that he doesn't need Ramsay talking to him like that and calls Ramsay a "limey prick". He also says that any restaurant would hire him, and they would be proud to have him there.

Nominees for elimination: Ramsay goes back to business and asks Kevin to finally and civilly deal with the nominations. Andy and Tony are finally nominated properly and with valid reasons.

Elimination: Ramsay (while feeling Lovely had been the worst performer of the night) eliminates Tony for failing to control his station. (Joseph receives no elimination sequence, but his jacket and burned photo can be seen next to Lovely's.)

Team change: Shortly afterwards, Ramsay gives Robert back to the blue team.

Team challenge: The chefs are awakened at 2 A.M. with lights and sirens from fire trucks. There is no fire, but they are told to serve the firefighters a pasta meal consisting of Chicken Alfredo, Meatball Marinara, and a garlic bread appetizer; the first to serve all firefighters on its side would win. Andy and Lovely have trouble cooking garlic bread, however Lovely quickly recovers and Andy struggles to the point. Andy only uses two of the five available ovens, slowing down the rest of his team. Eventually, Andy's bread makes it out to the dining room. The red team are far ahead, but get pushed back, allowing the blue team to catch up when Sabrina doesn't put enough chicken in the Alfredo and Tek undercooks some of the meatballs for the Marinara. Both teams make it to the final ticket simultaneously, but the women narrowly win.

Reward/punishment: The red team are spend a day at the Pacific Waters Spa via a helicopter. The blue team have to clean the firefighters' engines, to be followed by cleaning the dining area. During the team punishment, Dave sprains his wrist, while Kevin sprains both ankles, and they require treatment. Both opt to stay in the competition.

Dinner service: Ramsay assigns Dave and Lovely to be waiters. Lovely is criticized for her general slowness, taking 42 minutes to bring in an order, and is slowed even further when a customer requests a rare Balmoral wine. Tennille uses too much oil in her scallops. Andy tries to cook too many scallops in one small pan, causing an argument between himself and Robert. Ramsay tells Van to stop shouting because he was confusing his team, but was impressed with his risotto. Kevin also impressed with his performance on the meat station, despite his injured ankle. Amanda under-cooks several entrees and bins six portions of lamb. Although both teams are able to complete their service, the red team finishes first. The blue team has only one order to go for win, but Robert forgot to cook the salmon, forcing a 12-minute delay on the final table. However, the blue team ultimately wins the service after receiving 83% of the customers' cards, compared to the red team's 81%.

Nominees for elimination: Ramsay names Ariel as Best of the Worst and tells her she must pick two nominees for elimination. She selects Lovely and Tennille. Ramsay indicates that he thought Amanda should have been nominated rather than Lovely, but allows the nominations to stand. With two chefs eliminated after the previous service earlier in this episode, Ramsay decides that no one will be eliminated, then ends up testing Amanda's math skills once again. He also plays off of Joseph's diatribe by reminding the chefs, "I'm nobody's bitch."

Team challenge: Each chef must make sausages in pairs of two, by hand. The first team to make six strings of sausages that meet Ramsay's specifications will win. At this point, Ramsay chooses Amanda to sit out. The blue team struggles, and one pair, Jim & Robert, produces nothing. The majority of women are perfect, with only Ariel and Sabrina producing a line too thin, and the red team wins.

Reward/punishment: The red team visits Old World Village restaurant in Huntington Beach, and get to celebrate in their very own Oktoberfest. The blue team must clean up the dorms of both teams and this takes a mental toll on Robert, who has yet to win a single challenge himself. When sous chef Scott tells him to keep focusing on the competition, Robert breaks his broom in a fit of anger. Also, Dave receives a call from his doctor, informing him that his sprained wrist is actually a fracture, and must come to hospital to put cast to remain on for two weeks. Dave contemplates quitting the competition, and after seeking advice from Ramsay, he decides to stay.

Dinner service: This service includes Melinda Clarke, Dwight Freeney, Tom Green, John O'Hurley, Drew Lachey, Christopher "Kid" Reid, and Kristy Swanson. Jim and Ariel are assigned to the dining room to prepare an Amuse-bouche appetizer. In the dining room, Jim is too slow, talking to the customers. In the blue kitchen, Andy's lamb is undercooked and Robert does well on the appetizers. In the red kitchen, Lovely has trouble keeping track of the orders. Dave comes back for service after being released from hospital with a new cast and is assigned to desserts. Andy sends up raw chicken and Sous Chef Scott shouts at him for more chicken. Ariel overcooks the tagliatelle. The blue team wins the service after serving all of the entrees in a close finish. In the post-mortem that followed, Suzanne asks Ramsay for a "play-by-play" on the disappointing loss, but is shut down cold by Ramsay. Ramsay also points out that despite only having "eleven hands" (due to Dave's wrist fracture, and compared to the women's 14), the blue team was still able to complete the service.

Nominees for elimination: Sabrina is named Best of Worst, and nominates Lovely and Tek for elimination.

Elimination: Suzanne is asked who she would send home, and she says Lovely. Ramsay agrees with the decision and sends Lovely home. Although Tek performed poorly with the appetizers, Ramsay deemed Lovely at fault since her inability to keep up with the others cost her team the win and he was fed up Lovely's constant excuses about her failures.

For the special service, Marine Staff Sergeant Otis James has just returned home from a tour of duty in Iraq. To celebrate his return, Ramsay will be serving a dinner for his family and friends that includes Otis' favorite foods.

Team challenge: Each team has 45 minutes to cook one appetizer and two entrees, using pointers given by Otis' wife as a guide. She only gave the instructions to Robert and Suzanne, for them to give to the rest of their teams. Mrs. James will then determine, by taste, which dishes would Otis like best; the team with the most selected dishes will win. The blue team wins the challenge 2-1, with the decider coming on the surf and turf dishes. Crucially, Robert correctly remembers that Otis prefers grilled lobster, whereas Suzanne misremembers and serves a poached lobster.

Reward/punishment: The blue team spends the day flying in a mock dogfight with professional aviators from Air Combat USA, while the red team prepares the dining room for the celebration, with Ramsay's wife Tana giving specification help.

Dinner service: Tana opens the service, and features Otis' favorite foods that are being added to the menu. The blue team manages to serve all their tables successfully, Jim threatens on grilling Surf & Turf dishes on the grilling station caused on his overwhelm. And he struggled to recite the orders when questioned by Ramsay, although he got away with this when Ramsay became distracted by a burning pan on Van's station. The red team started off well enough, despite Sabrina failed to cook a mushroom salad, Tek proved unable to get the steaks on a right temperature, and also forgot that a hamburger was part of the order, caused on a big stall. When Tek finally managed to cook some acceptable steaks, the order still couldn't be sent because Amanda had undercooked the lobster. When the men have served all of the entrees, Ramsay ordered them (except Kevin who was on desserts) to help the women.

Nominees for elimination: The red team has to nominate Tennille and Tek. Tennille, however, thought she improved in that night's service, and thought Amanda should have been nominated, so Ramsay decides on Amanda to come up. When the three nominees stepped forward, Ramsay has called Tennille back in line.

Elimination: Although Ramsay felt Amanda lacked the emotional strength to win Hell's Kitchen, he ultimately picked Tek to leave Hell's Kitchen as she was accountable for the steak fiasco, which ruined any chance of the women even completing service.

When the Red Team went back to the dorms, Ramsay had a quick private talk with Amanda. Concerned about Amanda's ability to handle the pressure of being in Hell's Kitchen, he told her that her performance in services needed to improve quickly.

Team challenge: Each team had 45 minutes to create a low-calorie meal, consisting of an appetizer, an entreé, and a dessert, with the entire meal containing less than 700 calories; the team with the most items selected by Ramsay would be the winner. The Blue Team had 597 total calories while the Red Team had 694 total calories. The red team wons the challenge with a score of 3-1.

Reward/punishment: In addition to the their low-calorie menu being cooked on both sides of the dining room, the Red Team was also rewarded with a day at Venice Beach, being taught how to play volleyball with Annett Davis. On their return to the dorms, each member also receives a gift basket, including a Vitamix blender and Ramsay's book, Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite. The Blue Team spend the day prepping both sides for that night's service. They also have to drive a Conference Bike (an elaborate, multi-person, pedal-operated vehicle) to a market to pick up more produce. This proved costly for Robert, as the operation of this vehicle was more than he could take — after returning to Hell's Kitchen, he was rushed to a hospital, experiencing shortness of breath and dizziness. Due to this, he was unable to participate in that night's service.

Dinner service: The Blue Team had a terrible start. Andy failed to pay attention to Ramsay's orders each time, repeatedly cooking the scallops incorrectly; he also undercooked the halibut, before overcooking the same piece. Jim dragged in service by continually cooking the risotto incorrectly until sous chef Scott was told to take over the station. Dave got yelled at by Scott as well for cooking the wrong garnish. Over on the Red Team, Ariel "boiled" the scallops, which were returned for being undercooked. Sabrina took heat for undercooking the pork. Tennille was almost kicked out after back-talking to Ramsay over not making enough mash potatoes; after a heated argument with Ramsay in the corridor, she promised to hold her tongue and get the job done, she was allowed to return. With the service going nowhere, Ramsay closed the kitchen down and deemed both teams the loser.

Nominees for elimination: Each team had to nominate one person for elimination. women nominated Sabrina, but the men wouldn't nominate anyone, saying that Robert should be eliminated for not being there. Ramsay told them that Robert would not be eliminated, as it was unfair that he should be punished when he was unable to take part whatsoever. However, Ramsay continued, if he missed the next service he would thrown out. The Blue Team settled on nominating Andy.

Elimination: After Ramsay deliberated with the nominees, he ultimately chose Jim for elimination, stating that he had not once observed a night where Jim showed any passion for his work telling Jim he can't give him a heart and he is not the Wizard of Oz.

Team challenge: Each team roll a dice which had letters on twelve sides. Whichever letter it showed, the chef had to name an ingredient starting with that letter.^{[note 1]} They then had to cook using the ingredients.^{[note 2]} The blue team wins the challenge after Ramsay said on his very tough decision on the fig and angel hair pasta dish.

Reward/punishment: The blue team to go to Las Vegas where they toured the city in a limousine and then have an overnight stay in a high class suite at the Palms Casino Resort. The red team has to unload and unpack boxes of food being delivered to Hell's Kitchen, including wine for Jean-Phillippe. As well, they have to perform items in the kitchen, and cleaning and prepping in the next service. And they were awoken at 1:15AM to accept yet another delivery of food.

Dinner service: The blue team are still a down man with Robert still in hospital, while the red team were sick of Suzanne. Just before service began Robert returned. The blue team felt that the team dynamic worked better without Robert, and as a result he wanders around doing nothing for the pre-service, finally going upstairs to eat a cheeseburger. Each team have a chef's table on their side of the kitchen. Van has to talk with the chefs at the blue kitchen's chef's table because he forgot what he was cooking on the fish station. Robert makes mistakes on the meat station, making the lamb smaller than the bone itself. Food was returned to the pass from the dining room due to having pieces of plastic wrap in it. The red team do well throughout service but hit a slight snag on the pasta. Amanda is scolded Ramsay because she didn't have her food ready, due to Ariel not having the pasta ready. Ramsay yells at Kevin for not stopping to regroup with the team. Meanwhile, Robert's rabbit was raw, and Ramsay shuts down the blue kitchen. The red team finishes its service, serving both chef's tables, giving them their first dinner service victory of the season. Since the diners liked Dave's appetizer's, he is named Best of the Worst and told to nominate two men for elimination.

Nominees for elimination: Dave nominates Robert for his weak service, and some health problems, his other nominee is Van based on his poor performance. Ramsay brings Andy forward at the nomination nod.

Elimination: After the heated pleas over Andy and Robert, Ramsay orders Andy back in line and eliminates Robert. Ramsay noted that Robert had more services than any of the remaining chefs and his latest poor performance cost him his stay.^{[note 3]} Before leaving, Robert says that his culinary career isn't over, to which Ramsay replies, "I look forward to it."

Team challenge: The chefs are challenged to a blind taste test and were blindfolded as well. With the red team has an extra person, Tennille was told to sit out. Each chef has then given 4 ingredients to taste and they have to identify it correctly to receive points for their teams. The team with the most points would win the challenge. The red team wins 6-4.

Reward/punishment: The red team has to visit Opaque at the V Lounge in Santa Monica with Ramsay. The blue team has to make sorbet for tonight's service, as well as take in a delivery of fruit and clean the glasses for the sorbet.

Dinner service: The blue team able to complete their service with few flaws, Andy ran out of mashed potatoes for the last few remaining orders, but Dave was able to successfully cook up a new batch quickly despite his injured arm. The red team has several major problems during the service. Suzanne cooks her Sea Bass early put pressure on Sabrina to quickly get out the lamb which ended up undercooked, and Ramsay temporarily removed Sabrina from the kitchen and forced her to eat the lamb. Later, Suzanne held up a table's orders too long due to delays in cooking the Sea Bass, and Ramsay forced them to redo the table. Close to the end of dinner service, Amanda's halibut got undercooked. Nevertheless, both teams completed their service and the blue team declared winners. Ramsay noted that the men won despite being one cook down, and he especially singled out Dave for his performance.

Nominees for elimination: Tennille was named Best of the Worst and has to nominate two chefs for elimination, Suzanne is her first nominee due to lack of teamwork and being the weakest cook, and she has a difficult choice on picking Amanda and Sabrina, ends up on choosing Sabrina. Ramsay adds Amanda to step forward with the chosen nominees.

Elimination: In the end, Ramsay eliminates Amanda. Although both Sabrina and Suzanne made much major errors, Ramsay felt Amanda was too polite and was a far weaker performer than the other two nominees.

Team challenge: Each team has 20 minutes to make four crêpes for one each: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. Ramsay and Jean-Philippe decided which ones were the best and will win. The red team wins the challenge 3-2 after Sabrina's poached pears and chocolate ganache are deemed delicious.

Reward/punishment: The red team learns how to be mime artists, followed by dining at La Cachette Bistro in Santa Monica and where they were served foie gras. The blue team prepare both kitchens for a French-themed service. They also dine with cow tongue, baguettes and head cheese. Prior to the start of service, Andy accidentally sliced off his fingertips while using a mandoline to slice potatoes, requiring medical assistance—he returned at the start of service.

Dinner service: Suzanne made several errors, including undercooking and overcooking the lamb and cutting meat too early. Sabrina also underseasoned the risotto, forcing Ramsay to grab Dave's risotto for comparison and she was reprimanded by Ramsay for underspicing the frog legs. Andy failed to do many of his tasks on making the salad, Ramsay accuses him of putting in too much dressing. Andy's reasoning for his mistakes was that his fingers on his left hand were injured (as he uses his left hand to accomplish most tasks). Dave is doing many cooking tasks simultaneously, and was met with immense praise from Ramsay. Andy spent most of the service asking his teammates to help him complete his assignments, frustrating Ramsay to the point and he kicked him out of the kitchen for not doing any work. Suzanne for overcooking an entire table's worth of lamb, and Sabrina for inconsistency on appetizers, these lead on Ramsay's orders to kick them out. Ariel and Tennille completed the red team's service and got a help from sous chef Heather and ends on Ramsay's statement on unable to announce a winning team that both teams being incomplete to finish at the end of the service.

Nominees for elimination: Each team have to nominate two nominees for elimination and they choose Suzanne and Andy. They then debate on switching the nomination to Suzanne and Sabrina, but they were stuck with their original choice.

Elimination: Ramsay accepts the first choice of nominees to step forward, and he sends Andy home for his inconsistent performances and numerous excuses for his issues. Sabrina was also called up-front by the Chef and was told to step up.

Team change: Ramsay tells Suzanne to take off her jacket and informs she would be join the blue team, starting next episode.

Team challenge: Ramsay flew to Whistler overnight, via a video connection, a tour of the Araxi restaurant, as well as introduce this episode's challenge: each team have 2½ hours, and he times to fly back to Los Angeles, to prepare three entrees using all 15 ingredients (all native to Canada), without repeating ingredients. Former Olympic Medalists Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley judge each entree. The blue team won both votes on all entrees and win the contest 4-2 after Van's dish of braised kale was being liked by the judges' satisfaction.

Reward/punishment: The blue team have to go with Ramsay to the Campanile restaurant where chef Mark Peele shows them stylish versions of everyday dishes, includes grilled cheese sandwich. Also, each received a "souvenir" – a tuque with Whistler's logo emblazoned upon it. The red team had to go to a farm to do various chores, including milking the cows and cleaning the pig pen.

Dinner service: Before dinner service, Ramsay tears up the dinner menu and has each team create a new menu, with their own personal flair. While the Blue team has no problem creating their menu, Ariel disregards most of Tennille's suggestions and creates the Red team's menu largely by herself, while Sabrina doesn't contribute anything despite her team asking her for ideas. Van has constant issues with the fish station, and spills the sauce for the fish at the pass. Dave re-aggravates his arm injury after lifting a heavy pan, and despite having the medic called over, chooses to fight through the rest of the service. Ariel had several of her ravioli dishes returned for being undercooked. Van and Sabrina are both singled out for undercooking the halibut; in Van's case, Ramsay slams a hand into the halibut, and then closes both kitchens. Ramsay declared both teams losers for the second time in a row.^{[note 4]}

Nominees for elimination: Each team decides which of their teammates to nominate for elimination. Dave announces that Van was nominated for his poor service, while acknowledging that Suzanne is the weakest cook on the blue team. The red team nominate Sabrina, who goes on the chopping block for the third straight service.

Elimination: Sabrina home as he felt she was on the downward spiral in the last few services.^{[note 3]}

The remaining six chefs wake up to gifts congratulating them on making it to the Final Six. The chefs reveal their black team chef jackets.

Team challenge: The chefs are arranged in pairs and have 30 minutes to recreate one of Ramsay's signature dishes based on taste alone, and Ramsay will judge the dishes. He names the chefs in three pairs (Ariel and Van, Dave and Suzanne, and Kevin and Tennille). The three pairs correctly identified the turbot but failed on the puree, which was black onion. Dave and Suzanne win the challenge on giving a good palette on a passion fruit with sauteed turbot and parsnip puree dish.

Reward/punishment: Dave and Suzanne have lunch with Ramsay, cooked by the winning chef of Season 4, Christina Machamer at Ramsay's London West Hollywood restaurant (with Suzanne asking Christina a ton of questions). The others prep the kitchen and the dining room for a special "couples" dinner service.

Dinner service: Kevin serves salad and Porterhouse steaks table side. However, he is unable to actually serve the salads as Suzanne has trouble with her appetizers, which needed to be at the table at the same time. Apart from Ramsay noticing that Van was incessantly dropping beads of sweat into his scallop appetizers, Van also under-cooks his halibut and Ariel burns her garnish, lettuce. Ramsay is visibly losing his sanity and walks out of the kitchen with sous chef Scott, a first in the series. Tennille and Kevin take control of the kitchen. Ariel continues to struggle on staying in sync with the others. Ramsay returns to the kitchen and kicks out Suzanne, Ariel and Van to the dorms, leaving Kevin, Dave and Tennille to finish the service themselves. Van becomes infuriated, and even though Ariel attempts to calm him down in the dorms, Van walks out of the dorms. After Dave, Kevin and Tennille finish the service, Ramsay explains to them that by no fault of their own it was the worst service in his career.

Nominees for elimination: The trio have to decide to nominate two of the other three people for elimination, and their first choice is Suzanne. The team is conflicted for the second nominee, and they divided between Van and Ariel. When Tennille decides Van should go up, this angers Dave as he felt blindsided by Tennille.

Elimintion: Ramsay calls the three nominees to step forward, and after each states their case, Ramsay calls Ariel down but sends her back in line. Ramsay eliminates Van for his back to back failures on the fish station, but tells him he can cook but should let the food do the talking instead of him.

Individual challenge: For the first individual challenge, each chef has 45 minutes to cook an entree that not only tastes the best, but also is the most-appealing to the eye. The editorial staff of Bon Appétit magazine will judge the visual aspects, with the top two dishes judged by Ramsay and Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild for taste. Ariel's John Dory dish and Kevin's Caribbean Sea Bass made the top two and ended in a tie, with no consensus to taste the best.

Reward/punishment: Kevin and Ariel join Fairchild and Ramsay at the Shutters on the Beach Hotel in Santa Monica for a photo shoot for a future issue of Bon Appétit; and their entrees would be featured in that night's service. The others pick up litter off a stretch of road "adopted" by Hell's Kitchen, dressed up in jumpsuits, and transported on a prison bus. They will also clean up the Hell's Kitchen complex as well and had aggravated Dave's broken arm, requiring him to wrap it in ice.

Dinner service: Tennille's risotto was overcooked, Ramsay criticized Tennille for failing to catch the overcooked rice going in the risotto. Kevin confessed that he overcooked the rice in prep, forcing them to gather a new batch of rice for the risotto. Suzanne had difficulty cooking Ariel's John Dory dish and Ariel had undercooked the chicken and the lamb. Most tables in tonight's service are served incomplete with the final five struggled on their dishes in Ramsay's approval. Eventually, service was completed, but as Chef Ramsay expected this standard a long time ago, he merely said "Big deal."

Nominees for elimination: The team nominates Ariel and Suzanne for elimination for their many mistakes during service.

Elimination: Ramsay eliminates Suzanne, feeling that she was not only on a seemingly unsalvageable downward spiral but had run out of chances (much too the relief of Tennille). Ramsay told Tennille she dodged a bullet as she deserved to be nominated.

Individual challenge: The chefs awaken and to be greeted by Little Gordon, Ramsay's child version. After Little Gordon gives the contestants a brief show, the real Ramsay comes in the dining room and gives them their next individual challenge. They have one hour to cook 80 portions of a Vegetarian dish for 80 children. Each of the children is served one portion of each contestants' dish. Tennille's dish made "yummiest" and receives an average of 55%, making her the winner of a challenge. Dave finished second in the challenge, while Kevin's dish was voted as the "yuckiest".

Reward/punishment: Tennille is treated to a makeover in Beverly Hills and then goes with Ramsay to Nobu restaurant in Los Angeles and she is treated to a sushi meal personally prepared by world renowned sushi chef Nobu Matsuhisa. At the end of the meal, Chef Matsuhisa presents Tennille with a brand-new set of authentic Japanese knives designed by Rokusaburo Michiba and manufactured by J.A. Henckels. The other three had to clean up the mess left behind by the 80 children which included scraping gum off the bottom of the tables.

Dinner service: Kevin started off the service at the appetizers station, cooking delicious risotto. Dave's wrist injury acted up once during service, Ramsay told that he would continue in Hell's Kitchen, though Dave recovered. Tennille struggled badly in her scallops that did not make the mark and she burnt many of her fish. However, after getting blasted by Ramsay, she made a comeback and her subsequent cooking was perfect. Eventually, the service was completed "flawless".

Elimination: Ramsay considers to eliminate Dave because of his continuous pain, and he successfully pleaded on his case that if he is to be eliminated. Ramsay eliminates Tennille despite not being nominated and starts crying because of it but Chef Ramsay continues to praise her during her farewell.^{[note 5]}

Individual challenge: The chefs have 45 minutes to cook a dish of randomly selected ethnicity.^{[note 6]} Each of their dishes are then judged by three chefs in their represented countries (Eddie Wong, Thomas Garcia and Vikas Khanna). Ariel received a single vote, while Kevin got two votes, Despite never having cooked Indian food before (as it was a pork dish which is considered taboo in parts of India due to the high Muslim population), Dave wins the challenge after receiving three votes from all chefs.

Reward/punishment: For the challenge reward, Dave joins his sister and fiancee for enjoying lunch cooked by the judging panel, and he also won a complete set of Demeyere Cookware. Meanwhile, Ariel and Kevin polished numerous pieces of silverware and then prepared for the night's service.

Dinner service: Each contestant took turns at the pass, in which they were tested on their leadership, as well as their ability to spot intentionally made mistakes introduced by sous chefs Scott and Heather. Kevin passed both quality control tests but was bogged down by Ariel's lamb, Dave's aggressive leadership was initially successful but he twice missed catching mistakes in the dishes but later managed to spot weaknesses in the other dishes, Ariel caught one of two of the sabotaged dishes and soon lost control of the kitchen as she feuded with Kevin over the scallops.

Nominees: Each chef must nominate a person who feels should not advance to the final service. Kevin and Ariel nominated each other, and Dave decided to nominate Ariel.

Finalists Dave and Kevin are taken by limo to the Bonaventure Hotel as for the site of the final individual challenge.

Individual challenge: Dave and Kevin must have 45 minutes to cook a dish "worthy of the Araxi" to be judged by five-person panel of chefs and gourmands. Dave made a venison dish while Kevin made a petite clam bake with lobster and Dave wins the challenge 3-2.

Instead of prizes, Ramsay asks sous chef Scott for the "special deliveries" at the truck and opens six chefs from the competition, and Dave must getting to choose first.^{[note 7]} Dave picks Ariel, Robert, and Suzanne, and Kevin picks Van and Amanda, and he is left with Sabrina. Dave leads the blue kitchen with Scott as sous chef, and Kevin heads the red kitchen with Heather as sous-chef.

For the first time in Hell's Kitchen history, Dave and Kevin did not redesign their own dining rooms, but they still created their own menus. Dave kept his menu simple, while Kevin had elaborate but time-consuming dishes.

Dinner service: Each kitchen served 50 diners, including each preparing a meal for Araxi executive chef James Walt. Kevin's team was stalled by Amanda's inability to cook scallops, so Kevin had her and Van switch stations, with Van helping to compensate for her mistakes. Amanda also stalled the team during the main course until Kevin showed her how to cook her dishes correctly. Dave started off well, though there was some conflict with Robert over the mushroom risottos, and Ariel often failed to cook the venison properly which eventually lead to Robert going over and helping her. Eventually, the two teams were neck-and-neck by the time dinner service ended. However, both teams ended the service.

Winner: Ramsay determines the winner based on customer card's comments, he tells Dave and Kevin to stand in front of two doors, and one door opens would be the winner. Dave's door opened, making him the sixth winner of Hell's Kitchen.