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Season 7 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen began airing on the Fox Network on June 1, 2010. The winner will become head chef at Chef Ramsay's new restaurant at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Chefs

16 chefs will compete in season 7.

This season, the sous chefs are Scott Leibfried for the Blue Team, and newcomer Andi Van Willigan from Santa Monica, California for the Red Team.

Credit Order: Mikey, Holli, Jason, Ed, Siobhan, Nilka, Stacey, Andrew, Fran, Maria, Salvatore, Autumn, Benjamin, Jamie, Jay, Scott

Contestant progress

Notes:
^B This contestant was switched from the Red Team to the Blue Team.
^R This contestant was switched from the Blue Team to the Red Team.
^E This contestant was eliminated by Chef Ramsay despite being on the winning team.
^D This contestant was eliminated from service by Chef Ramsay while dinner service was still in progress.

  Contestant was a member of the winning or non-losing team

  Contestant was a member of the losing team

  Contestant was chosen as the Best of the Worst, or the Best of the Best

  Contestant was nominated for elimination but prevailed

  Contestant was nominated or called out for elimination by Chef Ramsay

  Contestant was eliminated.

  Contestant voluntarily left the competition

  Single team - contestant advanced in individual competition

  The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen.

  The winner of Hell's Kitchen season 7.

Episode guide

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

Episode 1

• Viewership: 6.2 million
• Original airdate: June 1, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 701, "16 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Overview: At the start of this episode, Chef Ramsay and the contestants introduced themselves to members of the press, with Chef Ramsay promising the media that the first dinner service will be completed. This is in stark contrast to previous seasons of the show, where the first service in every new season invariably ended in disaster. To help meet his goal, Chef Ramsay gives the contestants a series of video demonstrations on how to cook various dishes. However, these tutorials always began with a fire alarm siren, which sounded several times in the early morning hours while they slept.
• Signature Dishes / Team Challenge: Each team member cooks their signature dish for Chef Ramsay's approval. The team with the most approved dishes wins. Maria, Benjamin, Siobhan, Jay, Jason and Autumn all impressed Chef Ramsay with their dishes. Mikey's dish was felt to be badly presented by Chef Ramsay, but he enjoyed it enough to award the blue team a point. Andrew, Fran and Scott's dishes were deemed to be bland. The same couldn't be said about Nilka's dish, which was far too hot, owing to the fact that she had used half a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Ed's dish was too salty. Salvatore was accused of being lazy by using pre-made pasta and then failing to cook it properly. Stacey's fish was overcooked. Holli's execution of her dish was disastrous, leading Chef Ramsay to throw the plate in the trash. The low point was Jamie's dish, which in addition to being poorly presented, contained a sharp toothpick; upon seeing it, Chef Ramsay refused to taste the dish. The final score was 4-3 in favor of the blue team.
• Award / Punishment: The red team cooks and serves the blue team breakfast in bed.
• Service: Despite the usefulness of the video demonstrations, mistakes began from the very start by both teams including the usual inability to cook food, mistaking crab for lobster, and even tasting food and then continuing to use the spoon to cook with. Eventually, Chef Ramsay started sending chefs back up to the dorm, starting with Fran for her troubles on appetizers, along with Jamie for undercooking the entrees, and Maria for being disrespectful towards Ramsay. Benjamin and Salvatore were also sent up to the dorm later on, also for trouble on the appetizer section, followed by Stacey and Mikey, who both continually served up undercooked fish. However, as mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Chef Ramsay was determined to fulfill his promise to the media, so he combined the remaining half of the red team with the five remaining members of the blue team in the blue kitchen to finish the remainder of service.
• Nominees for elimination: While Chef Ramsay noted that both teams had terrible services, he deemed the blue team to have been slightly better before the teams were merged, and declared them the winners. The red team was told to nominate two contestants for elimination; the team nominated Fran for being the first along with Maria and Jamie to get thrown out of service and also for her excuse for mistaking crab for lobster was that she was a kosher cook and Stacey for being confused on the fish station.
• Elimination: Stacey was the first chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "It's a good thing Stacey is a private chef, because her food isn't good enough for the public."

Episode 2

• Viewership: 6.29 million
• Original airdate: June 8, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 702, "15 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: Shortly before 5 AM, the contestants were awakened by a sounding alarm clock, amplified with a microphone, and were taken to the kitchen for the next team challenge: each two-person team must cook four egg dishes in four different styles -- soft-boiled, poached, scrambled and sunny side up -- in five minutes. Siobhan, the odd chef out on the red team, must cook alone. The blue team won this challenge.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team takes a helicopter tour of Los Angeles and enjoy a champagne lunch with Chef Ramsay and Jean-Philippe on top one of the skyscrapers. The red team take a delivery of tuna and prep it for the next night's service.
• Service: The blue team got off to a bad start, as Mikey took over 40 minutes to get his first risotto out, and even that was sent back straight away due to the rice being undercooked. Later, Jason undercooked some chicken and attempted to solve the problem by pan-searing it, which infuriated Ramsay when he discovered what Jason was doing. The red team initially coped better, despite Autumn putting too much salt in the team's water pots, and got onto the entrees before the blue team had even served their first appetizer. After that though, the team then suffered a communication breakdown, as none of the chefs were able to time their orders correctly. The blue team recovered afterwards and the teams both completed the service at roughly the same time.
• Withdrawal: During the service, Chef Ramsay threw Andrew (who was talking to the garnishes) out of the kitchen in front of the customers following an argument, for making too many mistakes. Andrew then began to leave the building, thinking that he was thrown out of the competition. Jean-Philippe tried to talk Andrew back into the contest, saying that it was Chef Ramsay's way of testing the contestants (like when he did the same thing with Andrea in Season 5, who eventually fought back. However, unlike Andrea, he was insulted and yet, he was not asked to leave the building through the main entrance), adding that many people would like to be in his shoes to compete. Andrew, however, took off his shoes, saying they could have his shoes, and left the building -- and the competition, making him the second chef to leave Hell's Kitchen. It was mentioned that Andrew's voluntary departure was the second of its kind throughout the history of Hell's Kitchen (the previous was by Jeff in the third episode of Season 1).
• Nominees for elimination: Despite both teams finishing the service, Chef Ramsay was not happy with their performances and declared that there was no winning team, nor a best of the worst. The two teams were both instructed to put one member up for elimination. While some of the blue team members called into question Salvatore's skills and experience, they quickly nominated Jason for elimination. The red team initially looked to be in favor of nominating Nilka, but they ultimately decided to nominate Autumn on the grounds that she was not a team player. However, Chef Ramsay questioned the wisdom of the red team's nomination, leading that team to ultimately decide that Jamie was the worst cook.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay, questioning the wisdom of the blue team's decision as well, overrode all of the nominations. So he decided go off the board and eliminate Mikey, for struggling on two straight dinner services which made him the third chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason:
  • Andrew's elimination: No formal reason was given for Andrew's departure, but Chef Ramsay called him a joke to the industry before he left. He also didn't receive the full coat hanging and picture burning sequence, although his jacket and burned photo can be seen while Chef Ramsay is hanging up Mikey's jacket.
  • Mikey's elimination: "Mikey was all about appearances. Unfortunately for him, it didn't appear he could cook."

Episode 3

• Viewership: 4.84 million
• Original airdate: June 15, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 703, "13 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: In the Team Communication challenge, teams must serve lunch to members of the University of Southern California Marching Band and Cheerleaders. The Red Team won this challenge in a very close finish.
• Award / Punishment: The Red team join Chef Ramsay and his family for a soccer game at the beach. The Blue Team don yellow jumpsuits and head to a portion of the Los Angeles River to clean it of garbage.
• Service: Before service has begun, Fran had burned a portion of her hand while carrying a large pot of hot water, and she refused to see the medic, thinking it would slow the team down if she had to have her hand bandaged. Holli and Salvatore have been tasked to act as assistants to Jean-Phillipe. While Holli has little trouble taking orders for the Red Team, Salvatore's inability to write an order properly stalls the Blue team and has Chef Ramsay screaming at him until Salvatore nearly walks out of Hell's Kitchen at one point. Unlike Andrew in the previous episode however, Jean-Phillipe was able to talk Salvatore back into the game, although Salvatore said that if the Blue team lost, he would nominate himself for elimination. Meanwhile, Fran's burn has gotten worse and Ramsay forces her to seek medical attention after he noticed her arguing with Autumn over the situation, while Jamie was having problems with the garnish station by burning the carrots and mashed potatoes. Siobhan also has some issues with cooking fish. Nonetheless, after a dinner service lasting more than four hours, both teams were able to complete service.
• Nominees for elimination: The Red team were declared the losers and had to nominate two people for elimination. They chose Jamie and Fran.
• Elimination: Jamie was the fourth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "To be a great chef you need creativity, leadership qualities, and passion. Jamie had passion."

Episode 4

• Viewership: 6.22 million
• Original airdate: June 15, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 704, "12 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Overview: After the elimination sequence, Chef Ramsay pulls aside Salvatore and expresses his concerns about the latter's abilities while Salvatore promises to fight back. To that end, early the next day, Salvatore has Scott give him some pointers regarding cooking some of the dishes.
• Team Challenge: Similar to Season 6, each chef rolled a die which had letters on its twelve sides. Upon seeing the letter, the chef had ten seconds to call out an ingredient starting with that letter (unlike the previous season, there was no time limit on calling out an ingredient). The blue team end up with Halibut, endive, salsify, crab, peas, and bacon. The Red team end up with beets, shallots, mangoes, ham, turnips, and duck. The Blue team wins after Chef Ramsay notes the duck fat used in the Red Team's dish is raw.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team were told that they were going skydiving (much to Jason's dismay), but they discovered that they were going to be in a vertical wind tunnel for the day. The red team cleaned the entryway to Hell's Kitchen and prepped both kitchens for the night's dinner service.
• Service: Tonight's service includes numerous celebrities as well as special guests who will be using the chef's tables during this service. The Blue team's special guests are Debi Mazar and her husband, who is also a chef himself. The Red team's special guests are the host of Kevin Frazier from Entertainment Tonight and his wife. Despite a slow start on Fish, Salvatore on the Blue Team is able to excel in cooking most of his dishes perfectly. Nilka also excels for the Red Team on the Meat station. On the Red Team, Siobhan mistakes lobster for crab twice on her appetizers as the bins were mislabeled during prep, while Autumn has some issues handling the fish using tongs instead of a spatula. On the blue team, Scott tries to control the service by telling other chefs on what to do, only to have issues with his meat as most of his dishes end up undercooked. Ed also has some issues with improperly cooked mashed potatoes. However, the service is considered to be an improvement from the previous night as it took little more than half the time than the previous service.
• Nominees for elimination: Ramsay appointed Nilka and Salvatore as the best on their respective teams. Nilka nominated Autumn while Salvatore nominated Scott for his issues with the meat station, despite Scott helping Salvatore prepare for this service.
• Elimination: Neither person was eliminated.
• Team Change: Instead of sending either one of them home, Chef Ramsay tells Autumn and Scott to take both of their jackets off and informed Autumn that she'll be working with the Blue team while Scott will be working with the Red team.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "After our best service yet, I've decided to give Autumn and Scott another chance. But they better excel or they'll both be gone."

Episode 5

• Viewership: 5.68 million
• Original airdate: June 22, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 705, "12 Chefs Compete Again" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: Each chef had to catch a pig in a pen to get an ingredient listed on the pigs collar, totaling 3 pork items and 3 side items. The teams then had to make up dishes consisting of 1 of each item to make an exciting dish. The blue team won and the red team lost.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team took a day off at the spa. The red team had to go to the pen to give the pigs a bath.
• Service: Hell's Kitchen hosted a barbecue night, and had two servings (the first time in which there were two hostings since Season 5, when Hell's Kitchen was turned into a steak house), with the teams taking turns in cooking the menu and then working tables in the dining room. The red team experienced numerous difficulties in the kitchen, not helped by infighting among the team members, while the blue team did well in the dining room despite further difficulties caused by Salvatore's bad handwriting. When the teams swapped, the blue team proved to be little better at cooking the menu than their counterparts were. The red team were significantly worse in the dining room however, being slow to get orders into the kitchen. Maria, in particular got a lot of her tickets wrong, and took an order from a table that Holli had already took the order for.
• Nominees for elimination: Chef Ramsay named the red team the losers; both the teams had poor services in the kitchen, but the blues won out overall based on their performance in the dining room. Fran was named the best of the worst for her strong performance on the appetizers, and chose Maria and Nilka for elimination, but Chef Ramsay dismissed Nilka and nominated Scott instead.
• Elimination: Maria was the fifth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Maria was in over her head. On garnish she was lost and her team paid the cost. That's why her life in Hell's Kitchen is dead."

Episode 6

• Viewership: 6.28 million
• Original airdate: June 22, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 706, "11 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: The challenge was to make meals out of the five mother sauces (Hollandaise, Béchamel, Demi-glace, Velouté, and Tomato) while also not reusing any of the other twenty ingredients given to them for use. The blue team worked well together; on the red team, Nilka selected her ingredients without first consulting her teammates. At the end of the challenge, both teams were tied at 2 because neither team was awarded a point by Chef Ramsay in one of the rounds. Ultimately, Ramsay decided to award a point to the blue team for Jason's dish, which was excellent yet unfortunately lost to Nilka's dish earlier. Therefore, with a score of 3 to 2, the blue team was victorious.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team went to the Ye Olde King's Head British Pub in Santa Monica, California. Each member of the blue team also received a set of premium pots and pans, compliments of Chef Ramsay. The red team was punished by cleaning and preparing both kitchens. During the punishment Siobhan suffered an allergic reaction to the cleaning fluids and had to sit out the remainder of the punishment.
• Service: Hell's Kitchen hosted family night (the first time in which family night was hosted was in Season 4), adding a kids menu consisting of dishes such as chicken fingers and spaghetti. The blue team initially suffered from Salvatore cooking only one portion of risotto when two were on order, and then lying to Chef Ramsay about having done so. This caused Ramsay to furiously declare him untrustworthy. Other than that, the blue team's service went largely without incident; in particular, Benjamin emerged as a strong leader. The red team continued to struggle. After a stressful start to the service, Chef Ramsay sent all of the red chefs out of the kitchen while he, Sous Chef Scott and Sous Chef Andi completed the red service alone and without further incident.
• Nominees for elimination: When asked who the nominees were, Fran nominated Scott and then revealed that she was the second nominee, but admitted that she wasn't actually sure why she was nominated. This led to an argument among the team members, and eventually Chef Ramsay nominated Siobhan to accompany both of them.
• Elimination: Scott was the sixth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen. He interrupted Siobhan's explanation of why she should stay in order to launch a personal attack on her, which didn't impress Chef Ramsay, and when asked to justify why he should stay, he started bragging at length about how he was the best cook on either team. Ramsay rapidly lost patience, and interrupted Scott in mid-sentence to tell Fran and Siobhan to get back in line, and then he finally eliminated Scott.
• Team Change: Benjamin was told by Chef Ramsay to fill in Scott's spot on the Red Team.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "If Scott could cook as well as he talks, he'd be the winner of Hell's Kitchen. Unfortunately for him, he can't."

Episode 7

• Viewership: 5.70 million
• Original airdate: June 29, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 707, "10 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: Both teams cooked meals for a 50th wedding anniversary. They both had to remake and modernize the three dishes that the wedding couple had at their wedding reception 50 years ago. The challenge ended in a tie, so Chef Ramsay broke the deadlock, declaring the Red Team as the winner.
• Award / Punishment: The Red Team put on some 50's clothes and went to a 50's style diner. The Blue Team had to decorate the dining room for the 50th anniversary reception being held tomorrow night.
• Service: During prep Jay cut his finger to the bone, he was later fine and went back into the kitchen. Ed and Nilka served Steak Diane table side. Red team won the challenge so they served the guest of honors. The cake on the blue team made almost fell over but was saved in time. Salvatore struggled on garnish station as he was not communicating with his teammates. On the Red Team, Benjamin's crab cake was overcooked and Holli sent a raw chicken. However, both kitchen completed their 50th wedding anniversary dinner service. Chef Ramsay declared everyone should give 110% for their effort.
• Nominees for elimination: The Red team were declared the losers, despite improving their performance, and initially nominated Fran and Holli. After further discussion however, the team members changed their minds and decided to nominate Fran and Siobhan instead.
• Elimination: After briefly speaking with Fran and Siobhan, Chef Ramsay told them to get back in line and announced that while the red team hadn't won the service, no-one from the team would be eliminated since they had improved their performance by such a large degree. Instead, Chef Ramsay decided to go off the board and told Salvatore to leave Hell's Kitchen, making him the seventh chef to leave the competition despite being on the winning team (as happened with Carol from Season 5). Chef Ramsay said Salvatore's time has run out as he had only one good service in seven services in total.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Salvatore had a big heart. Too bad he couldn't cook with it."

Episode 8

• Viewership: 6.33 million
• Original airdate: June 29, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 708, "9 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: Each person had to make a gourmet sandwich, with Chef Ramsay checking everybody's ability to be innovative. They had 30 minutes to complete the challenge. Because the red team had one more person than the Blue team, they had to choose the worst sandwich on their team to sit out. The red team chose Siobhan to sit out, much to her dismay. The score ended in a tie, so Ramsay used Siobhan's sandwich to declare a winner. However, the blue team won, because Ramsay said that Siobhan's sandwich should've been picked over Fran's which featured soggy bread.
• Award / Punishment: The Blue Team was flown in a private jet for wine tasting which eventually led to both Ed and Autumn getting drunk, giving them hangovers heading into the dinner service. The Red Team had to shuck peanuts and grind them into peanut butter.
• Service: A disaster, as both teams sent out raw and overcooked food and had poor communication. After 90 minutes, Ramsay threw both teams out of the kitchen and declared no winners.
• Nominees for elimination: Since both teams had to put up two members, the discussion for the Blue Team centered around that nights' performance solely, and Ed's raw duck and Autumn's many mistakes led Jay to put them up for elimination. As for the Red Team, Siobhan and Fran were chosen for poor performances once again.
• Elimination: Chef Ramsay was fed up with Siobhan as well as her allowing Benjamin to take over her station during the service, leading him to eliminate her, which made her the eighth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Siobhan got pushed around a lot in Hell's Kitchen. So it was up to me to finally push her out."

Episode 9

• Viewership: 6.29 million
• Original airdate: July 6, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 709, "8 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: The contestants conduct a blind taste test to see which foods they can correctly identify. The blue team won this challenge.
• Award / Punishment: The blue team received VIP passes to go to Sea World to swim with the dolphins and to spend the day at the park. The red team takes in several deliveries of food. However, Jean-Philippe pointed out that the wine delivery that they received was meant for Gordon Ramsay at The London, West Hollywood, not for Hell's Kitchen.
• Service: Each team prepares their own menu consisting of four each of appetizers, entrees and dessert, with the customers deciding which menu to order from. Chef Ramsay was not impressed with either menu however, branding the red team's menu uninspiring (apart from Holli's desserts, which he greatly complemented) and the blue team's menu absolutely terrible. The blue team decided to revamp their menu at the last minute, but the red team ignored Ramsay's suggestions for improving their dishes. As a result, the orders for the blue team's menu vastly outnumbered those of the red team. Both kitchens were bought down by poor performances from Autumn and Fran on their respective meat stations, and this eventually led to Jay kicking Autumn off the blue team's meat station and telling her to prepare the desserts instead.
• Nominees for elimination: While the red team had clearly not won the service, Chef Ramsay refused to name the blue team the winners, since they had come up with such a bad menu at the first time of asking, and had not executed their redesigned version to his satisfaction. With no winning team, both teams each nominate a teammate up for elimination with the blue team nominating Autumn and the red team nominated Fran.
• Elimination: After making a disastrous attempt at dinner service Chef Ramsay told both Autumn and Fran to take both of their jackets off with Fran being told to leave Hell's Kitchen as the ninth chef to do so.
• Team Change: Despite being moved to the blue team even though she had a rocky service at first, Autumn was moved back to the red team after Chef Ramsay told her that she has one more chance.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Fran wanted her team to communicate, but it seems the only thing the team agreed on was wanting her gone."

Episode 10

• Viewership: 7.08 million
• Original airdate: July 6, 2010
• Episode recap: Hell's Kitchen - Episode 710, "7 Chefs Compete" (Fox.com)
• Team Challenge: The contestants each cook a lobster dish using a 10-pound lobster, with three judges, all Michelin-starred chefs, deciding which ones are best. Only one dish from each team earned a point. As with episode 6, Chef Ramsay broke the tie by choosing the best lobster dish, a decision which ended up going to Holli, who's dish was "by far" the best. Note: The Blue Team's lobster was named Salvatore, and the Red Team's lobster was named Siobhan, both of whom were former competitors in this season.
• Award / Punishment: The red team sample some caviar at a high-end restaurant, and was given $1000 to spend in a shopping spree. The blue team must clean the dorms and prep each kitchen for that night's service -- the red team's kitchen first.
• Service: When the red team returned for their reward, the blue team was still prepping the red team's kitchen, and had not begun prepping their own kitchen. Chef Ramsay then declared that both teams will operate in the red team's kitchen, serving customers who will be attending the theatre after dinner, placing a 2 1/2-hour time limit. Despite a shaky start due to Nilka having problems on the fish section and (to a lesser extent) Ed also having trouble on garnishes, the team rallied and finished the service with fifteen minutes to spare.
• Early Elimination Note: After Nilka committed numerous mistakes on the fish station, Chef Ramsay ordered Nilka out of the kitchen, and told her to take off her jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen. Nilka then went back into the kitchen and pleaded to be given a second chance, and despite Chef Ramsay again telling her to leave Hell's Kitchen, Nilka refused to do so and even tried to get back on the fish station. This eventually led to Benjamin, who had taken over her station, being forced to usher Nilka out of the kitchen. Before the actual elimination, Chef Ramsay waited at the back exit to talk to Nilka with calmer heads prevailing. Chef Ramsay urged Nilka not to give up her dream, before saying goodbye to Nilka and sending her home via taxi which made her the tenth chef to leave Hell's Kitchen. Like J from Season 5, Nilka did receive her full elimination sequence after being thrown out of mid-service at the end of the episode.
• Nominees for elimination: The teams were named joint-winners (meaning that this season's red team never earned an outright victory over the blue team in any service), and despite having the best service in the whole season, were told to nominate one chef from each team for elimination. Autumn and Ed were nominated to the chopping block.
• Elimination: Even though it appeared Chef Ramsay was going to pick Ed to leave Hell's Kitchen, he gave Ed and the rest of the chefs each a black jacket after Chef Ramsay congratulated them as the final six.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Tonight was the best service we've had in Hell's Kitchen, and that's why I rewarded the final six. Now, only the best chefs remain. Nilka was clearly out of her depth."

Episode 11

• Viewership:
• Original airdate: July 20, 2010
• Episode recap:
• Team Challenge: In this individual challenge, the chefs have thirty minutes to create a great-tasting dish and to make it look aesthetically pleasing. The dishes are judged based solely on presentation by culinary students. Benjamin and Ed's dishes were singled out to be the top two dishes. The dishes are then judged by Tanya Steel of Epicurious on taste, who declares Benjamin the winner.
• Award / Punishment: The losers must clean the entire restaurant, while Benjamin gets a make-over and a photo shoot with Epicurious. In addition, Ben's dish will be featured at the next dinner service.
• Service: Ed was horrific on the fish station, and Benjamin had no communication whatsoever with the team, prompting Ramsay to send both of them out of the kitchen. The remaining four chefs are able to complete dinner service including serving Whoopi Goldberg who was a special guest at the chef's table.
• Nominees for elimination: The team nominated Autumn for personal reasons and Ed due to his poor performance on the fish station.
• Elimination: Ed was the chef asked to leave Hell's Kitchen, making him the tenth eliminated.
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Ed was one of the favorites because of his strong start. Unfortunately in cooking it's not how you start, it's how you finish."

Episode 12

• Viewership:
• Original airdate: July 20, 2010
• Episode recap:
• Team Challenge:
• Award / Punishment:
• Service:
• Nominees for elimination:
• Elimination:
• Chef Ramsay's Reason: "Jason was good enough to make it to the final five. But it just didn't feel the confidence I needed to see being my head chef."

References

1. ^ First names only are given onscreen. Last names and biographical information per Hell's Kitchen Bios at Fox site
2. Hibberd, James. "'Got Talent,' 'Hell's Kitchen' debuts rise in ratings", The Hollywood Reporter; section "The Live Feed", June 02, 2010
3. "TV Ratings: Tuesday June 8, 2010 (Glee goes out on a high note!)", TheTVAddict.com, June 9, 2010
4. ^ "TV Ratings: Tuesday June 15, 2010 (NBA, Lakers Dominate)", TheTVAddict.com, June 16, 2010
5. ^ "TV Ratings: Tuesday June 22, 2010 (The only thing JILLIAN is losing is viewers!)", TheTVAddict.com, June 16, 2010
6. ^ "TV Ratings: Tuesday June 29, 2010 (Reruns Rule on CBS)", TheTVAddict.com, June 30, 2010 Cite error: The named reference "tvaddict6-29" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
7. ^ "TV Ratings: Tuesday July 6, 2010 (America loves it's Reality, with TALENT, KITCHEN & WIPEOUT up across the board)", TheTVAddict.com, July 7, 2010

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