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Ramsay calls up 16 chefs from previous seasons and invites them back to compete again in Hell's Kitchen. When they arrive, they are welcomed by fans, and their sous-chefs Christina and Jocky are introduced. Ramsay then reveals that the winner of this season will be the head chef of the new Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas.

Team challenge/signature dish: Unlike previous seasons, Ramsay gives the chefs each different ingredients which they will use to create new signature dishes in 45 minutes, and go head to head on main proteins. The scoring system is the same 1–5 ranking. On the duck dishes, both Ashley and Jared scored a 4, while on the chicken dishes, Barbie scored a 3, while Ben scored 2. Both Giovanni and Jennifer score 3 on their lamb dishes while on the scallop dishes, Michelle scored 4 over Nick's 3. In the pork chop dishes, Milly scored 4, while Manda scored 3. In the filet dishes, Dana scored 4 over Josh's 2, but both Van and Elise scored a perfect 5 on their lobster dishes. Finally, on the salmon dishes, Benjamin also scores a perfect 5, while Robyn scores a measly 1. The men triumph 28–27.

Rewards/punishment: The men went to Downtown Los Angeles to slide down the Skyslide at the U.S. Bank Tower and to celebrate their win with Marino. Afterwards, they had dinner with Ramsay at WP24 where they had their food cooked and served by Wolfgang Puck. The women, meanwhile, were forced to clean up the risers and confetti outside. While the women were angry at Robyn for costing them the challenge and puzzled at her demonstration of a fortune-telling rock (Elise even suggested that the rock could have told Robyn when to cook the salmon), they were even more annoyed at Elise for not helping out with the risers outside of Hell's Kitchen.

Challenge – part 2: Continuing from the last episode, Chef Ramsay announces this year Hell's Kitchen will offer a special bar menu; they are to create a bar menu item; whoever has the best item will be featured throughout the whole season and the winning chef from this challenge is also safe from tonight's elimination. The time limit is 40 minutes. The sous chefs will sample each dish and then select four from each team. Out of these dishes, Ramsay will pick the top four, which turned out to be Michelle, Milly, Elise, and Van. Milly's hand-cut French fries topped with a lobster cheese sauce won him immunity for tonight's service. Michelle, who came second, later expressed disappointment at this, as she felt her dish had been more adventurous whereas Milly's had been something he had made numerous times before.

After the challenge, Ben starts to feel unwell, and admits to his teammates that he was recently diagnosed with diabetes. With 30 minutes to dinner service, Ben goes to see the medic, who takes his vitals as he continues to worry about his diabetes and at this point needs to decide if he is going to take the chance or if he is "out". Ultimately, he decides to stay.

Service: A Hell's Kitchen first featured chef's table on opening night with Jordin Sparks in the red kitchen and Joe Mantegna in the blue kitchen. French Stewart, Keith Sweat and Kirstin Maldonado also attended as guests. Dana and Milly served tableside shrimp and pasta. For the men, Josh served perfect cold appetizers but took too long on them, irritating Ramsay. Jared and Ben served up a raw salmon. Ben took the blame for the blunder and suddenly became unbalanced, forcing Jared to catch him before he fell. They then serve an acceptable salmon. After that, however, the men had an almost perfect service, thanks to Nick and Giovanni serving perfect meat. For the women, Ashley served a soupy carbonara, but quickly served another one. Despite Robyn's strong performance on meat, Elise served up first raw and then overcooked New York Strip, causing Chef Ramsay to send the women to the dining room to apologize.^[4] When the women return, Chef Ramsay calls over Giovanni to help Elise with the meat. With Giovanni's help, the women's entrees finally reach the dining room. However, Manda serves up raw salmon for the chef's tables, then burns the skin on the refire, leading to Ramsay kicking the women out of the kitchen with the men finishing opening night on a strong note.

Elimination: Manda was quickly agreed on as the women's first nominee, and despite Elise and Barbie trying to persuade the other women that Robyn should be nominated for not doing enough to help Elise on the meat station, Elise herself was named as the second nominee. The women are then asked by Ramsay who they would send home. Ashley, Jennifer, Barbie and Michelle pick Manda while Robyn and Dana choose Elise. To the shock of everyone, Ramsay sent Manda and Elise back in line and called Ben down, revealing that he would be the one eliminated as Ramsay felt his health problems would make him a liability and unable to effectively continue. This made Ben the eighth chef to be eliminated despite being on the winning team.

Ramsay's comment: "Big Ben? More like big liability. He clearly wasn't going to be able to keep up, so I had to let him down."

After elimination – continued: Robyn and Elise have a heated argument over service which is only stopped when Manda drags Robyn to the other room. Prior to the next challenge, Josh threw up after eating vitamins and chimichanga for breakfast^{[according to whom?]}.

Team challenge: Before the next challenge begins, Ramsay demonstrated how effective a chef's hands are by having a kid over to play speed stacking. Michelle and Jared then competed in a cup stacking competition, with Michelle easily winning in just 18 seconds, and Jared taking over a minute longer. The women gained a 30-second head start for the real challenge: to recreate a seafood tower with four tiers as different pairs of chefs replicated one part of the tower to Ramsay's approval. Despite the disadvantage, the men won the challenge by a matter of seconds, with the women losing their advantage after Michelle and Elise had major problems putting together the second part of the tower.

Rewards/punishment: The men were sent to Ocean Club in Malibu where they ate a seafood lunch with Jocky and Marino. They later played soccer with U.S. soccer Olympians Alyssa Naeher and Julie Johnston. The women in the meantime were forced to take in deliveries of seafood, prep it for service, and forced to eat a disgusting fish dish, causing Barbie to vomit over Dana and Robyn's graphic descriptions of the dish. Elise tries to weasel out of the dish, but Sous-Chef Christina forces her to eat it. As they were unloading the deliveries, Barbie annoyed her teammates by telling them what to do.

Service: Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, professional golfer Jon Rahm, and the aforementioned Alyssa Naeher and Julie Johnston were guests in the dining room. Michelle and Giovanni served a seafood appetizer tableside. The men continued their winning streak with a near perfect service thanks to Milly's leadership with the only problems being Josh briefly getting confused on orders until Jared helped him out, and Van momentarily delaying a ticket by not having the salmon quite ready in time. While the women had a good start on appetizers, they soon fell apart on entrees. Despite Barbie cooking perfect meat, she openly argued with and criticized Robyn, who sent up raw salmon. Ashley was kicked out of the kitchen temporarily for being distracted by her watch, and Manda again struggled on garnishes. After Robyn served an overcooked piece of salmon and Barbie ruined three pieces of meat, Ramsey gave them one more chance. However, when Ashley overcooks a lobster wellington and Robyn brings up raw halibut, an angry Ramsay threw the women out for the second time in a row and had the men finish service.

Elimination: Ramsay called the women's performance even worse than the previous one, and ordered them to nominate two people. Barbie and Robyn were agreed on as the nominees due to Barbie's poor performance on meat and communication and Robyn for her poor performance on fish; Barbie argued that Ashley and Manda should be up as well due both of them struggling on their stations. Ramsay agreed and brought up the four women, ultimately eliminating Ashley for not doing much in service and believing she had no fight back left.

Team challenge: Ramsay brought everyone together for a game of chance. Both teams took turns in picking ingredients which started with a letter. As soon as a member could not think of an ingredient, the other team won the choice of an ingredient that had been said and were allowed to give the other team a bad ingredient. Each team member had to cook an individual dish using all of the ingredients on their team's list. The women chose mushrooms, snap peas, asparagus and rice and were given cantaloupe, peanut butter and blueberries, while the men won cauliflower, portabella mushrooms and bacon and were given maraschino cherries, syrup, artichoke and raisins. Barbie scored 4 (although she was unable to taste her own sauce as she was allergic to peanuts), Manda scored 2, Dana scored a perfect 5 but Robyn again scored a 1. Elise and Michelle also scored 5 while Jennifer scored 4. Milly scored 4, Van scored 3, Benjamin scored 5 and Jared scored 1. Nick scored 5, Josh scored 3 and Giovanni scored 4, giving the women their first challenge victory, 26-25.

Rewards/punishment: The women flew in a private plane to Santa Barbara to stay at the Belmond El Encanto resort. The men dealt with a delivery of potatoes and then sifted through garbage to find what was recyclable. During the punishment, the men became infuriated with Josh after he revealed he was a celebrity caterer who only worked three hours a day.

Service: Shannon Tweed dined in the red kitchen and Paige VanZant in the blue. Both kitchens had to prepare for a twelve-top table for a guest celebrating his 30th birthday. Ramsay had both kitchens coordinate their dishes in sync with one another for the appetizers and the entrees. Throughout the service, the red team had an almost flawless performance, as Michelle and Jennifer both managed to properly coordinate the kitchens so the twelve-top could be served. Their only real problems came with Michelle adding too much garlic to a risotto and Barbie temporarily struggling on garnishes, though even then, both quickly recovered. The blue team's service was much more rocky; Josh slowed the team on appetizers and then twice sent up far too many orders of risotto, with Ramsay making him eat the leftovers with the VIP guests. Giovanni sent up a burnt order of pork alongside a well-cooked one, and Benjamin and Jared sent up a raw order of duck for the twelve-top table, forcing Jennifer to step in and rescue the table. When Benjamin sent up a cold beef wellington, Ramsay threw the blue team out, having the red team finish their service and asking them to come up with two nominees.

Team challenge: Bringing everybody outside, Ramsay explains that some chefs use wood planks to cook fish on, which will be their next challenge. Both teams will have three pairs of two and one lone chef cook their fish and produce over a fire pit on top of cedar wood or hickory wood. Ramsay is then joined by Chef Ben Ford (Harrison Ford's son) in the judging. During the challenge, Josh smothered the Red Team's fire with cold coals, causing frustration between him and the team. Robyn and Nick beat Michelle and Jennifer on cod, but both teams score on wahoo and barramundi, with Van earning praise for preparing a Nicoise salad with eggs boiled in the fire pit. After Elise beats Milly and Giovanni on salmon, both teams finish tied at 3–3. Ramsay and Ford deem Robyn and Nick's dish the best of the day, giving the blue team the win.

Rewards/punishment: The blue team heads down to Apex Farm and enjoys a horseback ride. The red team also go to Apex Farm, but are forced to clean horse manure in a pen.

Service: Actor Shaun Brown was in attendance for this service. A tableside appetizer of smoked salmon rillette is served by Van and Barbie. In the blue kitchen, Benjamin uses oil on a non-stick pan for scallops but recovers, though he irritates his teammates by responding to Ramsay in French. Ironically, Ramsay didn't seem to mind. Robyn accidentally drops an order of chicken and serves a raw beef Wellington, and Milly has trouble communicating with Nick on garnish. Otherwise, the blue team had a decent service. On the red team, Josh was slow on the fish and chips for the bar menu, leading Manda to repeatedly take over his station, frustrating him. After he serves salty spinach and liquid mashed potatoes, Ramsay catches him handling cold garnishes with his bare hands when the protein it goes with is already at the pass. A frustrated Ramsay kicks Josh out of service, much to the relief of the red team who perform much better afterward, though Elise earned some of the other chefs' ire by standing around and doing nothing.

Automatic elimination: After a while, Josh decides to come back to the kitchen and fight his way back in. Ramsay, however, takes him into the back room and eliminates him from Hell's Kitchen due to his poor performances, stubbornness, and failure to improve upon his past mistakes, although he acknowledges Josh's big heart and talent. Josh takes his jacket off and leaves through the front door, making him the eighth person to be eliminated during service, the second after switching teams (after Lacey in Season 5), and the second who was asked to use the front door (after Gabriel in Season 12). Ramsay doesn't give an explanation for Josh's elimination, and his jacket is not hung up, nor is his picture burned.

After Josh's elimination and the post-service meeting, Chef Ramsay told the chefs to all get some rest, as big changes were coming. Everyone was relieved that Josh was gone, with Milly specifically stating that every remaining contestant hated Josh and that he was not at any of their levels, in terms of overall skill. They all sat around drinking and talking about each other's sex lives, making fun of who they thought was "vanilla," and who might be a freak in the bed. Suddenly, Van fell into the hot tub.

Team challenge: The challenge was to create and bake a pizza at the DeSano Pizzeria and Bakery. Each pizza would consist of ingredients inspired by a country selected by a random spin of a wheel, and each chef from one team would go head-to-head against a chef from the other team to create the better pizza as judged by Ramsay, Marino, and Chef Steve Samson. Barbie scored the first point for the red team against Robyn with her pizza inspired by India, with all three judges voting in her favor. Milly scored the first point for the blue team against Jennifer with his pizza inspired by Morocco, with Ramsay and Marino voting in favor of him, but Samson voting in favor of Jennifer. Manda scored the second point for the red team against Van with her pizza inspired by Vietnam, with all three judges voting in her favor. Nick scored the second point for the blue team against Dana with his pizza inspired by Greece, with all three judges voting in his favor. Neither Elise nor Jared managed to score a point for their teams with their pizzas inspired by South Korea, as Elise's pizza was badly misshapen and Jared had served raw cabbage, thinking it was kimchi. But Michelle scored the third and winning point for the red team against Giovanni with her pizza inspired by France. Because the blue team had an extra member, Benjamin's pizza, also inspired by France, was omitted in favor of Giovanni's, although the blue team ultimately regretted this decision due to Giovanni's pizza being burnt.

Rewards/punishment: The red team headed to The Magic Castle after a tour of Hollywood on a double-decker bus where they were entertained by Joel Ward. The blue team was forced to prepare the entire dining room for the upcoming Italian Night in Hell's Kitchen.

Service: Chef's tables were featured for Italian night as actress Melissa Fumero sat in the red kitchen while the blue team had a pair of VIP guests in their respective kitchen which includes 2012 Miss Universe Olivia Culpo and Victoria's Secret model Devon Windsor. A tableside Italian seafood entrée was served by Nick and Elise. In the blue kitchen, Benjamin caused confusion by not communicating with Robyn in terms of when to drop scallops for their first appetizer. When the entrées rolled around, Van and Giovanni sent up a raw serving of lamb, which made Ramsay force the entire team into the pantry. Worse still, after returning to the kitchen, Van and Giovanni took too long in delivering the lamb, and when Van laughed at Ramsay's admonishment of Giovanni, Ramsay forced him back into the pantry to deride him some more. Later, Jared miscommunicated with his team and eventually lied to them about when his garnish would be ready, due to being overwhelmed by how many different garnishes he was cooking at once. After arguing with Robyn over his inconsistent timings and unable to take being called out for it by the whole team, he faked a medical emergency by saying he had a cut on his finger that turned out not to be there (although he insisted that it was). This allowed him room to leave the kitchen to see the medic, who would later confirm that there was, in fact, no cut. The final straw came when Robyn overcooked two orders of salmon, and Giovanni overcooked two orders of veal. Fed up with their mistakes, Ramsay chastised the blue team for not performing as strongly as they had on opening night, called the medic over to confirm that Jared didn't cut himself, and finally kicked them out of the kitchen. Conversely, on the red team, Manda, due to having Celiac Disease, could not taste any of the pasta for the team's first appetizer and instead had to rely on Michelle to determine whether or not it had been cooked properly. Michelle mistakenly told her that it had been, but Ramsay sent it back when he revealed that it had actually been undercooked. She nearly misinformed Manda a second time, but thanks to Elise taking over tasting duty, Manda was able to deliver a perfectly-cooked pasta. Michelle had a strong performance on the meat station but suffered a fall while trying to cook an order of lamb for one of the team's entrées, which Manda considered to be karma for her pasta error, but she still managed to cook it properly. Elise also tried much too hard to be a team player and annoyed her teammates in trying to assist them on their stations when they did not need her help. Besides these mishaps, the red team had a strong, solid service and were given the victory.

Elimination: After a long, heated debate back in the dorms that put Van, Giovanni, Jared, and Robyn in the crosshairs, the blue team nominated Jared for his "medical emergency" that disrupted the garnish station, and Robyn for her errors with the scallops and the salmon. Jared continued to insist that he truly had cut himself, while Robyn went as far as to plead with Ramsay to send her back to the red team since it had become clear that she was just not bonding with the blue team. In the end, Ramsay shocked everyone on both teams when he eliminated Jared for faking the injury and worsening performances after a strong start, stating he never found his stride. Jared exited while continuing to insist that his cut had been real, despite contradictory testimony from the medic.

Challenge: For their next challenge, both teams are to cook six of the most popular dishes in Hell's Kitchen (Beef Wellington, Salmon, Halibut, Rack of Lamb, Duck Breast, and Double Bone Pork Chop) in 25 minutes. However, every 3 minutes, Ramsay asks for each team to kick out one team member each which in the end, leaves Nick and Michelle the only ones left in their respective kitchens until everyone is called back in during the last 3 minutes. In the end, the blue team won 5–3 because the red team served raw lamb and pork.

Rewards/punishment: The blue team went to a world class rock climbing gym and ate at the Bourbon Steak at Americana and are joined by Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky. The red team had to work with Marino in cleaning the dining room and kitchen along with polishing Marino's shoes and prepping for next service.

Cook For Your Life Challenge: Instead of a service, Ramsay announced that tonight is a Cook For Your Life Challenge and asks Michelle and Nick who they think are the three weakest chefs on their respective teams. Michelle nominated Barbie, Elise, and Manda while Nick nominated Giovanni, Milly, and Robyn. The six chefs were tasked with recreating Ramsay's Champagne and Oysters in 30 minutes.

Elimination: Before the judging, Elise broke down in tears due to feeling she didn't deserve to be put up for the challenge. Milly was sent to safety first (despite preparing only five oysters instead of six as required), followed by Manda, Barbie, and Elise, leaving Giovanni and Robyn as the last two. After getting back to the dorms, Elise got into a heated confrontation with Michelle for nominating her for the challenge. In the end, Robyn was sent up to safety last despite puncturing two of her oysters, leaving Giovanni to be eliminated for putting too much pasta and not enough sauce on each oyster, though Ramsay wished him and his family luck.

Team challenge: For their next challenge, Ramsay announced that both teams would be cooking with three of the earliest meat hunted by man; boar, venison, and elk. Both teams had 3 minutes to hunt 5 ingredients for each of their protein and had 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Both teams had two pairs cooking with a similar meat, minus Nick who is the lone blue chef to cook with venison. Ramsay brought in chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (who previously helped judge a challenge in Seasons 13 and 14) to help him with the judging. Van scored a point on his boar dish while Elise scored a point on her venison making it a 1–1 tie. In a big surprise, Robyn's elk dish broke the tie in favor of the blue team and they won the challenge 2–1. Ramsay even welcomed Robyn back after a string of poor performances.

Reward/punishment: The blue team went on an exclusive mountain retreat at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, while indulging in caviar provided by Chef Alex Ageneau. The red team had to clean out the dorm rooms and had to clean the waiting staff's aprons. During punishment, Michelle tried to apologize to Elise for putting her up in the Cook For Your Life Challenge, but Elise rudely rejected her apology.

Service: A caviar bellini appetizer special was included on the main menu. Later that night, Ramsay received a last-minute VIP booking from Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik where he was seated in the red kitchen. The blue team had a perfect service with all five of them communicating well and none of their dishes were cooked incorrectly. Ramsay praised this, only needing to lecture Robyn when she kept calling her teammates "baby". For the red team, it was the opposite story. Elise was slow on the caviar appetizer dish and needed Jennifer's help in the preparation. Things soon fell apart on the entree's when Manda didn't hear an order of pork for one table which slowed the momentum, and Barbie served raw duck. Things got worse when Barbie later sent up a raw chicken that Michelle thought was cooked. After Barbie sent up a raw duck again and Manda gave a raw pork to the pass, Ramsay called the blue team over and told them he needed them to finish their last ticket as the red team, who Ramsay declared had their worst service yet, was kicked out for the third time this season. The blue team later had the red team's tickets finished.

Elimination: After an awful service by the Red Team, Ramsay ordered the Red Team to come up with two nominees for Elimination. After a long discussion, The Red team nominated Manda and Barbie, although Elise suggested that Michelle should have been put up for Elimination. Despite Barbie's horrendous performance on the meat station, Ramsay sent her back in line and eliminated Manda for being the main reason for the red team's defeat, but praised her for her hard work and determination.

Challenge: The remaining chefs participated in a fishing challenge where the chefs had to waddle through a lake. They must hook lures containing different ingredients to their fish's mouth and then throw it to their teammates. Each ingredient they fish out will go a certain fish – Dover sole, red snapper, grouper, arctic char, or cod. Afterwards, they had 30 minutes to cook their fish with the ingredients they fished out from the lake. Michael Cimarusti served as a guest judge. Jennifer scored over Nick in the battle of the cod, while Robyn scored over Michelle with the grouper. Milly scored over Elise with the red snapper, mainly because Elise was only able to fish three ingredients for her snapper. Benjamin and Dana both scored a point with their arctic char. Finally, Van scored over Barbie in the Dover sole, giving the blue team a 4–2 victory.

Reward/punishment: The blue team headed out to Las Vegas in a private plane to stay overnight at Caesars Palace. They also went on the world's tallest Ferris Wheel with Christina. The red team had to bring in several hundreds of pounds of fish, then descale and fillet them. In addition, they were served a disgusting protein shake. Barbie tried to throw away her entire shake, only to get caught. As a result, Jocky forces the rest of the team to finish their serving of shake. This caused Dana, Elise, and Michelle to vomit.

Service: This service included an Asian fusion menu. Guests in attendance included Aleks Paunovic and E–40 in addition to the chef's tables, which hosted Cheryl Burke and Dan Bucatinsky in the red and blue kitchen respectively. Barbie and Robyn each spent excessive amounts of time fraternizing with the chef's table guests, earning the ire of Elise and Nick respectively. Despite sous chef Christina advising Barbie to lead, Elise and Barbie fought for control of the kitchen all night. Raw chicken sent to the pass prompted Ramsay to send the entire red team into the pantry. Later, Cheryl informed Barbie that the duck was slightly raw and Barbie offered to prepare another, but the guests declined. Despite Elise's objections, Barbie insisted on a fresh serving of duck. When Barbie asked Elise to prepare a duck garnish, Elise refused, an argument ensued, and Ramsay pulled both back into the pantry and demanded they sort out their differences before reentering. This prompted Elise to call Barbie "cuckoo" before exiting the pantry. In the blue kitchen, Milly brought up raw New York strip but recovered. Van failed to respond when Ramsay asked for time on the salmon, and proceeded to bring up an overcooked portion. He was also able to bounce back, but not before Ramsay threatened to throw him out. Even though both teams completed service with no ejections, Ramsay declared both teams losers and asked for two nominees per team for elimination.

Elimination: The blue team considered nominating Van for his struggles on fish and Milly for raw steak, but are interrupted by the red team arguing from across the hall. Ramsay first asks the blue team for nominations and Nick replies with Robyn and Milly. Ramsay calls down Van as well and gives all three 30 seconds to plead their cases. After this, he sends Robyn and Milly back in line, and much to the disbelief of the other chefs, eliminates Van for his lack of communication on the fish station, but encourages him to keep his head up. Next, he calls for the red team's nominations and Dana replies with Elise and Barbie. Barbie states that she will not repeat the mistakes from tonight's service and that her team has rejected her attempts to get along with them, while Elise points to her stronger performances on challenges than Barbie (ironically she put herself at a major disadvantage for this week's challenge). But Ramsay simply sends both back in line and warns the remaining chefs to correct their mistakes, or else.

Challenge: Ramsay announced that the annual Blind Taste Test was the next challenge, and for this season, they would be tasting herbs and spices mixed into a mashed potato puree. While one chef tastes the ingredients, a member of their team would be in a chair and would get splattered with mashed potatoes and gravy if the taster got multiple incorrect answers. Robyn scored 3 while Dana failed to score any points, resulting in Michelle getting messy. This was a complete reversal from Season 10 when Dana got 2 and laughed at Robyn who didn't get any. Nick scored 2 while Jennifer also failed to score any points (resulting in Dana getting messy), and Benjamin scores 3 while Barbie scores 2, with Benjamin redeeming himself after Ramsey called him out on season 7 due to only getting one correct during the blind taste challenge. Elise and Milly were supposed to be the second to last pair to go, but Ramsay warned the red team that if Elise did not catch up to the blue team, the challenge was over. After Elise failed to score on her three tests (ironically, she had best individual performance during this challenge on season 9, scoring 3 out 4), the blue team won the challenge 8–2 without having to go to a fifth and final pairing (Michelle did not taste). This is first time since Season 15 that the Blind Taste Test did not have to go to the final ingredient and the first one ever that was won before the final round. This contrasts with recent seasons 13, 14 and 16 that all needed to go to sudden death. Ramsay complimented the Blue team for not having any of their members have gravy dumped on them (which happens with three incorrect guesses).

Reward/punishment: The blue team went to Roy Yamaguchi's Hawaiian Fusion Restaurant for lunch and received Vitamix Blenders while at the restaurant. The red team had to clean up the dining room and separate peppercorn while grinding them by hand. During punishment, sous-chef Christina noticed some animosity in the red team and asked them if they could promise a good dinner service, but Dana refused to do so as she did not have faith in Barbie.

Service: For one night only, Hell's Kitchen hosted a private dinner service for two charities with the blue team cooking for Shane's Inspiration, and the red team cooking for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Both charities featured notable guests in attendance which include Mindy Sterling and Tyler Posey in the red table, and David Koechner, Jill Wagner and Shane's Inspiration founder Scott Williams in the blue table. Each team would have one chef lead a section, though Nick had to lead both the scallop appetizer and the passion fruit souffle dessert for the blue team, which was a member down. Michelle and Nick were able to get their dishes out with few problems, with Michelle noticing that she was missing three scallops and Milly overcooking some scallops for Nick's dishes as well as Robyn prematurely starting her course before they had sent out the scallop course. Both Robyn and Jennifer led well on the pasta course with the only problem being Robyn plating more spaghetti than needed. On the Striped Bass dish, Milly led the blue team strongly and got his dishes out with no problems, but in the red kitchen, most of the bass were burnt and Elise accused her team of sabotaging her, despite her not checking them before serving them. For the Beef filet Rossini, it was the same story as Benjamin led his team well while in the red kitchen, Barbie screamed aggressively at Michelle over a side of spinach and their potatoes were burnt. Dana and Nick had no issues with their desserts, but Ramsay called the red team's performance the "worst charity dinner ever in the entire competition" before tasking them to come up with two nominees.

Elimination: Barbie and Elise were nominated. Ramsay eliminated Barbie for her aggressive leadership at service along with not bouncing back quicker, but praised her for her heart. He then remarked that the blue team's remaining four members would likely make up for the final four.

Before the challenge began, Jennifer made a pact with her Season 9 archrival Elise to knock out Dana and Michelle, whom they believed weaker and to be in their own clique.

Challenge: Before heading off to bed, Ramsay announced a pasta challenge tomorrow where the chefs had to create three portions a gourmet pasta dish with a $20 budget at a local grocery store. Joining Ramsay in the judging is Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Chef and Co-Owner of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, CO and Bruce Kalman, Chef and Owner of Union in Pasadena, CA. Each judge gave points based on how much they would pay for the dish. Michelle and Elise earned Ramsay's suspicion when they announced they were making a dumpling soup and paella, respectively, as Ramsay was expecting Italian dishes for this challenge. Despite this, the red team won the challenge $320 to $313, as Michelle and Elise's outside-the-box dishes hit big and Milly's chicken meatball pasta did not. It was the first time they won a challenge since Episode 6.

Reward/punishment: The red team went go-karting and had an incredible lunch. In addition, Michelle's Asian inspired Tortellini Soup (which was the best dish of the day) was added in tonight's menu. The blue team were tasked in cleaning the kitchen shelves.

Service: Tyler Hilton, Sebastian Roche, and Keesha Sharp were in attendance for this service. Both teams got off to strong starts on appetizers, but had struggles on entrees with their respective meat stations. In the red kitchen, Dana scorched her initial wellingtons and sent up raw lamb to the pass. In the blue kitchen, Robyn was slow on one of her wellingtons, mis-remembered a ticket order, and had trouble communicating with Benjamin on the garnish station, earning a trip to the storeroom with Ramsay. Despite that, both teams pushed entrees out, and with three tickets left each, Ramsay told both teams that the first team to finish up was the winner. Despite making it to their last ticket, Dana served overcooked and undercooked wellingtons, and Ramsay threw the red team out for the fourth time this season as the blue team finished their own tickets.

Elimination: Despite being told to nominate two people, the red team had a three way tie between Dana, Michelle and Elise due to the alliance between Jennifer and Elise. So Ramsay called all three of them down. Ramsay sent Michelle and Elise back in line, eliminating Dana for her lack of leadership and poor performance on meat. As Dana was the only returning chef who had never been nominated, she was eliminated the first time she was on the chopping block.

Ramsay announced that today was a black jackets challenge where only five of the seven chefs would get black jackets, while two of them would be sent home.

Challenge 1: For their first challenge, it was the classic Taste It Now Make It Challenge as Ramsay gave the chefs 45 minutes to taste his dish and recreate it. Everyone got the protein correct: sea bass. In the end, Milly was the only one to get both purees correct (white asparagus and romanesco), and Nick and Benjamin each matched four out of five ingredients in the hash (celery root, fava beans, apples, chives, only missing sweet potato). Ramsay gave the edge to Nick because Benjamin's bass was slightly burnt. They won the first black jackets and spent the rest of the day at the Black Jackets VIP Lounge.

Challenge 2: For their second challenge, Ramsay had 5 domes with limited ingredients, and when he rings the bell, the chefs had to race and grab whatever ingredient they wanted. They then had to cook a dish in 30 minutes using those ingredients. Jennifer and Elise were disqualified for undercooking potatoes and leaving the gonads on a lobster, respectively. Michelle's veal chops and Benjamin's filet mignon were the best two dishes, and they received their black jackets. They then joined Milly and Nick in the Lounge area. Before their final challenge, Jennifer urged Robyn to beat Elise.

Challenge 3: For their final challenge, Ramsay gave the three chefs 30 minutes to cook whatever they wanted and had full range of ingredients in the kitchen. The black jacket chefs watched the challenge on a live video feed, but it cut out after the challenge ended. Robyn made a seared lamb loin with potato and corn hash (despite having initially selected halibut for her primary protein), Elise made a filet mignon with potato puree and rainbow chard, and Jennifer made scallops and shrimp with corn succotash.

Elimination: After tasting the dishes, Ramsay eliminated Elise for having the weakest dish of the three, but told her to keep her jacket and urged her to keep her head up high. To decide between Jennifer and Robyn, who were crying and hugging each other, Ramsay had Jockey and Christina taste the dishes. In the end, Robyn received the final black jacket and Jennifer was sent home due to her scallops being slightly undercooked. Before leaving, Ramsay allowed Jennifer to keep her jacket as well and praised her for improving since the last time she competed. Before leaving Jennifer wished Robyn good luck and was happy to have beaten Elise, who betrayed her on their previous season. After Robyn got to the Black Jacket Lounge, Ramsay and the sous chefs brought champagne to the lounge and congratulated the remaining chefs for being in the final five.

Challenge: For their first black jackets challenge, the chefs had to teach sports all stars (Milly cooking with NFL's Ricky Williams, Michelle cooking with the winner of the WNBA championship Candace Parker, Benjamin cooking with NFL "Light's Out" Shawne Merriman, Nick cooking with Olympic gold medalist gymnast Jordyn Wieber, and Robyn cooking with 5-time NBA All-Star Reggie Miller) how to cook their signature dishes that they originally planned on making at the start of the season in 45 minutes. Once finished, Ramsay will then judge the dishes and have one person on the winners seat, but they could be dethroned if Ramsay found the next dish better. Michelle won the challenge by beating Milly, who had beaten Robyn and Nick, and then beating Benjamin.

Reward/punishment: Michelle went on a tour to see all the breath-taking views of Los Angeles from her very own helicopter; after that, she ate at 71 Above and took Nick with her. The remaining chefs had to participate in deep cleaning day. During punishment, Robyn got annoyed when Milly was seen not helping much and eating the leftover food from the challenge.

Service: Rapper and Musician Wyclef Jean was seated at the chefs table. Former 2 Broke Girls actors Jonathan Kite and Matthew Moy were in attendance in addition to Janina Gavankar. Milly had a messy work station on the appetizer section and failed to notice a pan catching on fire until Ramsey pointed it out. He also struggled to make hot appetizers and cold appetizers at the same time, requiring Nick and Robyn's help, but managed to recover. Benjamin was not communicating with everyone else from the meat station, and annoyed everyone with his constant "Oui Chef" reply. Michelle performed well on the fish station, only having trouble when she was slow to bring up the sauce for a halibut. Nick served a raw New York strip but managed to quickly recover. Robyn sent up bland couscous, had trouble keeping up on garnish, and earned the entire team a trip to the pantry after telling Ramsey she had to recook her brussel sprouts due to burning them. Despite the speed bumps, the team sent out the rest of their tickets out with no problems, and Ramsay was relatively pleased by it. After service, Ramsay named Michelle the "Best of the Best" as she was the only one not to commit any major errors and told her to nominate two people.

Elimination: Michelle nominated Robyn and Milly for elimination. During the elimination process, Robyn argued with Milly over how little work she felt he did during punishment and service. Ramsay eliminated Robyn for being the weakest of the black jackets but praised her for improving a lot after her poor start and allowed her to keep her jacket.

While the chefs are leaving, Ramsay calls Milly over and tells him he is talented and that the fighting and conflict is not necessary. Milly acknowledges this in an interview and apologizes. Before the next challenge, Ramsay revealed that he invited the final four's loved ones (Michelle's sister and nephews, Nick's husband and mom, Benjamin's wife and daughters, and Milly's girlfriend and infant son) for some time together.

Challenge: Ramsay had the chefs choose a Christmas present under a tree that contained ingredients for them. They then had forty-five minutes to use those ingredients to make a festive inspired dish. Afterwards, Ramsay invited their loved ones for a blind judging, with them voting for their top two dishes. Benjamin and Michelle were tied, with Milly receiving no votes. Benjamin won the challenge when Ramsay broke the tie in his favor.

Reward/punishment: Benjamin rode with Ramsay in a Ferrari to lunch with his family while the rest of the chefs had to clean the SUV's and clean up the dining room. During punishment, Nick, Michelle, and Milly made a pact to make sure Season 14 all made it to the final three.

Service: For this service, each of the final four had a turn on the pass with Ramsay not only testing their leadership skills, but their quality control as Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky would be intentionally making mistakes. In attendance that night were Anna Konkle and Gabrielle Dennis. Benjamin was up first and managed to catch Christina serving a carbonara with spaghetti instead of fettuccine, but did not notice carrots instead of butternut squash in the risotto. Milly missed an intentional ticket mistake from Marino, but became vocal and caught multiple mistakes from Michelle on garnish. Michelle did see that Christina did not serve spinach as requested, but failed to identify a ribeye instead of the ordered New York strip. Nick missed Jocky sending up a veal chop instead of a pork chop, but caught mistakes from Christina, Michelle, and Milly, the latter of which was struggling with a poached egg. After service, Ramsay told them to think of one person they wanted to be with in the finals.

Elimination: At elimination, everyone else said that they wanted to see Nick in the finale. Afterwards, Ramsay eliminated Milly, but said he was happy to give him a second chance, praised his confidence and told him to keep his jacket. In an unprecedented step, Ramsay offered Milly an opportunity to come to London for a week and stage at his flagship three Michelin Star Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Milly enthusiastically accepted and left. Afterwards, Ramsay picked Nick as the first finalist and praised him for growing more than any chef in this competition. Benjamin was the second finalist for his calm, collected leadership that night. However, in another unprecedented move, Ramsay selected Michelle as the third finalist of the season, marking the first time in Hell's Kitchen history where Chef Ramsay names three finalists.

Individual challenge: The finalists were each assigned a sous chef, who would help them prepare a menu in one hour consisting of a hot and cold appetizer, as well as a chicken, beef, and seafood entree. During this process, Nick overcooked the beurre blanc sauce for one of his dishes, but managed to recover with the help of Sous Chef Christina. After sampling all the dishes, Ramsay was unable to decide on a winner.

Reward: Michelle, Benjamin, and Nick were all transported to an awards ceremony for the fictitious Culinary Association of America, where Ramsay took the stage and announced that they would be cooking their menus again for the executive staff at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Continued from the previous episode, Michelle picked Elise, so Benjamin was left with Barbie.

Service: Before dinner service, while both teams prepped their menus, Elise continued to give Michelle attitude until Nick told her to shut up or go home. Lamorne Morris and the finalists' families were in attendance for the last dinner service of the season. In the red kitchen, Dana needed Michelle's help to assemble a cold appetizer, prompting Ramsay to give Michelle a pep talk in the storeroom. Marino returned two risottos to Michelle's kitchen after a minor complaint about the broth. Elise recovered and successfully re-fired the risottos that were then sent back to Lamorne Morris' table, much to the actor's delight. Ramsay then scolded Nick for attempting to call nine entrees in a single sitting. Meanwhile in the blue kitchen, Barbie did well on hot apps for Benjamin, despite not having done it often during the season. But entrees were a different story. First, Jennifer sent up raw fish twice. Robyn sent up raw filets and burned the subsequent refire. Her third attempt on the same ticket was raw again, prompting Ramsay to accuse her of sabotaging Benjamin. When she finally brought up an acceptable steak, it came with a raw lamb. She then refired the lamb in the same pan that had been used to cook the steak, which was a cross-contamination hazard. An irate Ramsay dragged Robyn and Benjamin into the dining room, threw the former out of the kitchen, and berated the latter for not stepping up as a leader. Nevertheless, Robyn continued to fight with Benjamin to be allowed back in, and he finally relented on the last ticket.

Winner: As per Hell's Kitchen tradition, Michelle and Benjamin stood in front of two doors. Michelle's door opened, making her the 17th winner and first All-Star winner of Hell's Kitchen; Benjamin took his defeat graciously. Michelle gave a victory speech and hung her picture in the Hall of Fame. In the final credits scene, Elise cried openly over losing to Michelle and Van asked Marino for a 'real drink' as opposed to the standard champagne.