Hell Kitchen Season 5 Overview

Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox between January 29 and May 14, 2009. Executive chef Danny Veltri, from Edgewater, Florida, was the winner of that season and became Sous Chef at Italian restaurant Fornelletto, at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, with a salary of $250,000. At age 23, he is, to this date, the youngest winner in the history of the show.

Contestants

16 contestants competed during this season. The teams were divided by gender at the beginning, male contestants in the blue team, and female contestants in the red team. The contestants were (in alphabetical order):

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Coi Burruss	22	Cafe Chef	Austin, TX
Ji-Hyun Cha	33	Private Caterer	Palisades Park, NJ
Colleen Cleek	41	Culinary Instructor	Papillion, NE
Lacey D’Angelo	24	Corporate Buffet Cook	Charlotte, NC
Paula DaSilva	28	Executive sous Chef	Coconut Creek, FL
Giovanni Filippone	37	Executive Chef	Destin, FL
Andrea Heinly	30	Line Cook	Reading, PA
Robert Hesse	29	Sous Chef	Quogue, NY
Wil Kocol	26	Quality Control Chef	Elgin, IL
Seth Levine	27	Private Party Chef	New York, NY
Alicia “LA” Limtiaco	22	Line Cook	Las Vegas, NV
Jason “J” Maxwell	32	Food Court Chef	Clifton Park, NY
Charlie McKay	24	Prep Chef	Las Vegas, NV
Carol Scott	30	Sous Chef	Knoxville, TN
Daniel “Danny” Veltri	23	Executive Chef	Edgewater, FL
Benjamin “Ben” Walanka	26	Executive Sous Chef	Chicago, IL