Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on fox between May 30 and August 1 2005. Professional chef Micheal Wray from Fort Collins, Colorado was the winner of that season and won his own restaurant named Tatou in Los Angles.

Contestants

12 contestants competed during this season. Until Season 18, it was the only season to data where the teams were not separated by gender at the beginning. The contestants were (in alphabetical order):

1. Andrew Bonito
2. Jessica Cabo
3. James “Jimmy” Casey
4. Mary Ellen Daniels
5. Jeffery Dewberry
6. Jeff LaPof
7. Wendy Liu
8. Chris North
9. Ralph Pagano
10.  Elsie Ramos
11. Carolann Valentino
12. Michael Wray

Contestant progress

At the end of each episode, one chef from the losing team is eliminated by Ramsay after being picked by the “Best of the Worst” determined by Ramsay after the last dinner service from twelfth place to winner.

12. Carolann

11. Dewberry

10. Jeff

9. Wendy

8. Mary Ellen

7. Chris

6. Andrew

5. Jimmy

4.Elsie

3.Jessica

2.Ralph

1.Micheal

Episodes

Here is a list of all the episodes of the season with links for the detailed articles (coming soon):

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Final Episode

Season 1

Airdate: May 30 – August 1 2005

Number of Episodes: 11

Number of Contestants: 12

Winner: Micheal Wray

Runner-Up: Ralph

After Hell Kitchen

• After his appearance on the show, he returned to college to complete a Masters in Hospitality, and became Director of Operations at Hu Kitchen. He is now Director of Strategic Initiatives for LM Restaurant Group.

• After her appearance on the show, she returned cooking in one of her friend’s restaurant, before opening her own restaurant in Santa Monica, called Brick+Mortor. In 2013, she became Head Chef at CAM Café at the Cameron Art Museum. She is currently the Head Chef of East Oceanfront Dining located inside The Blockade Runner Beach Resort, in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.

• After his appearance on the show, he returned to his previous career as a purchasing supervisor.

• After her appearance on the show, she married in 2013 and returned to her previous career in hospitality.

• After his appearance on the show, he created his own YouTube channel, featuring vegan recipes, as well as becoming the chef/manager of the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta.

• After his appearance on the show, he became a used car salesman, before returning to his career as an Allstate Insurance agent.

• After her appearance on the show, she returned to her career in account management.

• After his appearance on the show, he returned to his career as an Executive Chef at Rowayton Seafood, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

• After his appearance on the show, he became a celebrity chef and hosted many tv cooking shows. He opened a lot of successful restaurants in Miami, Florida, such as Naked Taco, Naked Lunch and Naked Tiki. He also competed on “Iron Chef America”, where he lost to Iron Chef Bobby Flay, in the battle of barramundi.

• After her appearance on the show, she published a book called “Elsie’s Turkey Tacos and Arroz con Pollo”. She also appeared on cooking shows, returned to culinary school, and made herself partner with Health First, to promote healthier choices for homemade cooking.

• After her appearance on the show, she became an actress and starred in the comedy play “Burnt to the Steak”, a one-woman show, which is critically acclaimed.

• After his appearance on the show, he declined the opportunity to work under Ramsay at London because of family reasons, so he became Head Chef at The Standards restaurant in Los Angeles, before opening his own restaurant called Tatou. But, when he tried to open another restaurant called HK One, he was not able because of his finance problems. So, he opened his knife company called, Skull and Cleavers, and teaches cooking classes. 5 years after his season, he got divorced, lost his infant daughter, and was briefly homeless after a drug addiction. He has since cleaned up, gotten remarried, and is currently looking into buying a food truck business.

 

 

 

 

Hell’s Kitchen is an American reality television cooking competition based on the British series of the same name, broadcasted on Fox. It is hosted by Gordon Ramsay who is a celebrity chef from the UK.

Format

The U.S version of Hell kitchen follows the format of the UK version though the show is recorded and not performed live, nor is their audience participation in the elimination of chefs. Each season brings twelve to twenty aspiring chefs to Hell’s Kitchen, a modified warehouse in Los Angeles that includes the restaurant, dual kitchen facilities and a dormitory where the chefs reside while on the show. Gordon Ramsay breaks the chefs into two teams most often based on gender, with women on the red team and men on the blue and are given a chef’s jacket with labels of that colour. The chefs compete in these teams, barring any reassignment by Ramsey until only five or six chefs are left, which they are brought into a single common teams wearing black-labeled jackets though they now compete individually to be one of the final two. Each episode typically includes one challenge and one dinner service, following which a chef is eliminated from the show.

Challenges

In challenges, the teams or individual chefs are tasked with a cooking challenge by Ramsay. The type of challenges are varied ranging from ingredient preparation, meal preparation, taste tests and other challenges. The first challenges of each season is a signature dish cook off, giving the chefs the opportunity to show Ramsay their cooking. Each season typically includes one or more challenges that allows teams to construct several dishes typically include a “taste it, make it’ task where chefs must try to recreate a dish Ramsay has prepared by taste only and a taste-test challenge where chefs identify ingredients without sight or sound. The winner of the challenge is either determined by a scoring system set for that challenge or based on Ramsey’s and guest judges’ opinions. The winning team or chef is typically rewarded with an activity away from Hell’s Kitchen and other potential prizes, while the losing team or chefs are forced to do a punishment such as cleaning the kitchens, preparing a specific ingredient for the dinner’s meal or having to prepare the food for both kitchens.

Dinner Services

For dinner services, the chefs are expected to work their station (such as meat, fish, garnish) on the kitchen line to prepare food in coordination with their teammates and to Ramsay’s high standards for quality and presentation during a dinner service for about 100 guests (volunteers for the show) with each diner expecting to receive an appetiser, an entree and a dessert . The chefs are given menus and recipe books by Ramsay to study and memorise, which include some of Ramsay most difficult plates including risotto and Beef Wellington and are given a few hours before each service to prep their ingredients. They are also given silverware sets that they get to keep, regardless of their progress. Ramsay demands that all orders for one course for a table go out together and will send back entire orders if one item is improperly prepared such as being over- or undercooked or not seasoned correctly while the chefs are in two teams, Ramsay is assisted by two of his trusted sous-chefs, each monitoring one of the kitchens who will also demand the same standards. The sous-chefs shift to helping to fill available positions once the chefs are on a single black team. One such service in this time period allows each chef to run the pass as part of a quality-control test (i.e spotting mistakes that are sent up by either Ramsay or one of his sous-chefs).

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Elimination

Ramsay desires to complete every dinner service but poor kitchen performance by one or both teams will cause him to close one or both sides of the kitchen early and send the team(s) back to the dorms. Once the dinner service is complete, Ramsay determines which team (if not both) is the losing team and informs them to come up with chefs to be nominated for elimination. This may be a task assigned to the “best of the worst” on the team or may be a group consensus. Ramsay regroups the teams and hears out the nominations from the losing team(s). After giving these nominees the chance to defend themselves, Ramsay selects one to hand over their jacket and “leave Hell’s Kitchen”, later symbolically placing that jacket on an empty sharp hook below a picture of that chef in a row in his office; the hook pokes a hole in the jacket and ignites that chef’s picture signalling their departure. Ramsay is free to ignore these elimination rules if he sees fit. He has frequently eliminated chefs during the middle of the service if their performance is abysmal, or may override the provided nominations with his own selection. If an eliminated chef has performed exceptionally well, he may allow that chef to keep their jackets as a token of their success up to that point if he sees fit. At the end of each episode, as he is seen heading back to his office to hang up the eliminated chef’s jacket, there is a voice-over of him explaining his reasons for eliminating that chef. Often chefs will be taken out of the competition for medical reasons or they may leave on their own free will; though the latter is not encouraged, their wishes are ultimately honoured.

Final Two

Once two chefs remain, they are each given the opportunity to develop their own menu and lead a brigade of former competitors through a full dinner service on their own. In some seasons, this has included the opportunity to decorate half of the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant to their liking. Ramsay will assure that all menu items meet his standards for high cuisine and will oversee the service to make sure the high quality standards he expects are retained but otherwise does not get involved, allowing the two remaining chefs to demonstrate their ability to run the line to him. Ramsay will use his observation, those from the diners and other sources to make a decision on who is the winning chef. This process is announced by having the two chefs stand at two different doors from his office and tells them to turn the door handle and open it; only the door of the winning chef is unlocked. The winning chef receives numerous prizes including the opportunity to work as the head chef or executive chef at a restaurant of Ramsay’s choosing as well as a cash prize.

Overview

Season 1

Season 2