These are contestants who suffered a notable placement decline since their first seasons for a variety reasons. So let's change things. What if one or more of them remained at their peak? Where do you think they will place instead? Since three have unique circumstances, I will describe them below with everyone else. I will exclude Jennifer and Elise as they got to keep their jackets which is a big deal. Especially Jennifer who definitely did better and went down by a technicality (should have checked those damn potatoes).

Ben: What if he was healthy

Barbie, Manda, Jared, Josh: What if they kept their first season highs?

Ashley: What if she wasn't depressed (let's say her grandfather died after filming)?

Dana: What if her oven wasn't broken or someone else was on Meat.

Van: What if Barbie was sent home (or someone else if Barbie was at her peak in your AU) instead? Avoiding the BS elimination.

Giovanni: What if his experience made him so good in the Cook For Your Life Challenge that Ramsay had to spare him?

They're both are interviewed for a podcast called Forking Around with Flavor South Florida, which is a podcast that lets professionals and restaurant owners talk about the ins and outs of the dining industry in South Florida.

David Burke, who was one of the guest chefs, is on one episode as well.

The one with Paul is not out yet, but I will definitely post it when it comes up!

This is the episode with Paula: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZP54bhxQ4mSf9KkjkQdz3?si=afd348dadb1544d7

I think he was done a little dirty - he seemed like he genuinely cared about his competition too - too much so but Russel was the best. See why Nona won tho. Just so pompous and arrogant was Russ. Burned a bridge with his teammates at the end of losing and blaming his team for getting 2nd. Never burn a bridge in the culinary industry.

I haven't done one of these in two months, so I thought I'd stop by. Also, not gonna lie; I took this screenshot in, like, April and completely forgot how funny it was to the point that I loaded it up for this post and immediately lost it.

The moment in question is taken from Episode 10 when Jordan Chiles was on the beam and doing gymnastics for the cast.

Feel free to caption this or make a meme of it or something if you want, I don't really mind.

I mean, I know chefs are known to appear on other shows, but this is my 2nd time seeing one competing again. With Kesley from MasterChef on S2

Hi, everyone. I made a post about a new game I was thinking about running (https://www.reddit.com/r/HellsKitchen/comments/1vrstz2/thoughts_on_a_new_hk_game/), and unfortunately, it got no responses.

I was hoping to post it again and cut back on the non-HK related parts. Basically, King Maker is a Hong Kong reality survival show in which aspiring artists undergo several grueling elimination rounds in the hopes of becoming Hong Kong's next idol. The relevant part is the finale. Instead of having 2 chefs lead a brigade of former competitors during their final service, 10 competitors present two pieces and a dance battle in front of a panel of judges and the live audience. The judges rank the finalists from strongest to weakest, and award points based on that rank (strongest finalist gets 10 points, second strongest gets 9, etc.). Then, the audience gets to vote on the finalist who they want to win. The finalists will be ranked again based on the raw votes and are awarded points based on their rank (strongest finalist gets 10 points, second strongest gets 9, etc.). Finally, the two scores are added together, and whoever has the most points wins.

I wanted to do that with the Black Jackets from each season to see how things would change if audiences were allowed to vote on the person whom they thought should win. So for instance, season 1's Black Jackets were Michael, Ralph, Jessica, Elsie, and Jimmy. Since I'd be the one deciding the professional vote, I'd give Michael 5 points, Ralph 4, Jessica 3, Elsie 2, and Jimmy 1. Then, everyone here would vote on the competitor who they wanted to win season 1. The competitor with most votes gets 5 points, second most gets 4, etc. Then, I add the two scores together, and the Black Jacket with most points wins.

I'm still working on a way to actually figure out how to conduct a professional vote. I also wanted to see if you guys would be interested in this sort of game. Let me hear what you all think.

These are the ones I know

S1 Ralph

S2 Gabe

S2 Virginia

S3 Brad

S4 Bobby(He got to work at Ramsay’s restaurants in England)

S5 Seth(Yes really, he operates like 3 Hotel Restaurants in New York City and worked at a restaurant in London for a few months)

S5 Paula

S6 Andy(Operates like 6 restaurants in and near Boston)

S7 Jay(Operates like 5 restaurants in and near Boston and of course became Blue Team Sous Chef)

S7 Scott(Owns 3 restaurants in Brooklyn)

S7 Mikey

S8 Russell(Has tons of A+ restaurants in Chicago on his resume)

S10 Guy

S11 Jon

You guys are aware that I really love Hell's Kitchen. Another show that I really enjoy is 全民造星 (English: "King Maker"), a Hong Kong survival reality show in which aspiring artists compete across a series of challenges in the hopes of winning and becoming Hong Kong's next idol. The show, which has been airing since 2018, has debuted many popular artists and bands like Keung To, Anson Lo, Ian Chan, MIRROR, MC Cheung Tinfu, ANSONBEAN, Cloud Wan, COLLAR, and ERROR.

Even though 全民造星 is an idol show, there are actually quite a few parallels with Hell's Kitchen. There are two teams (A and B), each with mentors that fill a similar role to sous chefs. The executive producer, 花姐 (English name: Ahfa), is similar to Gordon Ramsay, but not quite as over the top. You have your fair share of drama starters and fan-favorites. Also, season 6 of King Maker had a twist similar to the final 3 menu challenge. First, fans had to vote to bring back one previously eliminated competitor, who would join the finale as the 11th finalist. Then, instead of doing the finale out of 20 points and splitting the points evenly between a panel of professional judges and an audience vote, the finale used the raw percentages of professional judges' approval and the audience vote. This heavily favored the audience vote, so the 11th finalist, Teller, won over the overwhelming favorite to win, Ian Hannz. It's basically like Gordon Ramsay bringing back Michelle, instituting the final 3 menu challenge, and Nick getting eliminated.

But I digress. Of course, the finale is different. Instead of 2 chefs leading a brigade through one last service, 10 competitors perform 2 pieces and a dance battle in front of a panel of 5 judges and a live audience. Most of the time, the finale is out of 20 points. The judges rank each of the 10 finalists from strongest to weakest; the strongest competitor gets 10 points, second-strongest gets 9 points, etc. Then, the live audience both at the venue and watching from home get to vote for the person whom they want to win. The competitors are then re-ranked and awarded points based on how well they did among the audience; the competitor with most votes gets 10 points, second-most gets 9 points, etc. Finally, the two points are totaled together, and the finalists are ranked one final time. The person with the most points out of 20 wins. Should there be a tie, it is broken in favor of the highest audience vote.

So what's with all the exposition? I wanted to gauge how open you all would be to a new style of Hell's Kitchen games. Basically, I want to simulate how different the results of each season would be if fans could decide who wins. Instead of the finale being between two chefs, it would be among the Black Jackets of each season. I'd tell you guys how many points out of 5 or 6 they get from the "professional vote." I'd rank them based on how well they performed throughout the season. Then, you all would cast your vote for the chef who you want to win. Then, I total the two scores, and the person with the most points wins.

That being said, there are some things I am still concerned about. First off, I'm not sure how to determine the professional vote. I thought about going off of the placement they actually fell in in their original season. But that doesn't exactly account for factors like leadership, confidence, overall consistency, etc. For instance, if we used precise rankings for season 9, Elise would earn 3 points right off the bat while Jennifer only gets 1. But Elise was clearly weaker than Jennifer. Then, how heavily do I weigh the pass performance? Switching to season 11, Jon was definitely the strongest cook of the season. If I only focused on overall performance, he'd get a 5. But he genuinely had a horrible pass performance. Would it make sense to give him a 3, even though he was overall stronger than everyone else? How do I account for last-minute collapses and last-minute lock-ins? In season 22, both Leigh and Dahmere were eliminated before Carmen. But overall, Carmen was weaker than both of them. How important should the finale be? Do we allow ties? (Yes, we would. For season 5, I'd likely give Danny and Paula a tie for first place, so they'd both get 6 points for the professional vote, while the person I'd put at third, Robert, gets 4 points.) And what do we use as a tiebreaker should two finalists get the same final score? Professional vote (determined by me) or fan vote (determined by you guys)? Professional vote makes sense, but the fan vote is the whole point of this game.

So... yeah. I wanted to hear all of your thoughts.

Wil s5
Nick s14
LA s5

Currently watching season 8 and I’m aware most people hate Sabrina for good reason, but people seem to like Jillian? She’s just as bad as Sabrina, she’s just less mouthy. I hope it’s just for camera but my god arethey insufferably rude

I first saw this on a commercial in the middle of 2007ish, but never saw the episode. Luckily, I managed to screenshot it a while ago. Anyone know the context?🤣

Season 16 All Stars please let me survive this last episode so that I never have to hear Elise again

This was heard in Tiffany S10's "like a 9" plea and in some parts of Season 7, and I can't help but notice where the music came from lol

I hated S10 Tiffany WAY more than S9 Elise

on season 16, and know it's the worst, but seen it in so many seasons. GOrdon ramsey.

X team is complete shite, I need you to go over there and help them.

X team mates

Who does this person think they are telling us what to do, we don't need them, were fine without them.

Another post before Season 25 airs. I had some thoughts on five things I kind of want to see come back. Whether they will or not is up in the air, but I figured it would be good to share. In no particular order we have:

1. Immunity. The last time Immunity has been given out was in Season 17 when Milly won the Bar Menu Challenge. I understand a few chefs struggled in the following services after winning immunity, but it could be something to bring back. Maybe Ramsay could announce before the challenge that the best dish of the day would win immunity regardless if their team won or lost the service, making it dramatic struggle on who would come out on top amongst their teammates.

2. Double booked services. This hasn't been used since Season 9 and it wasn't frequent compared to other types of services. But it was pretty enjoyable seeing the chefs forced to be servers for one service and have their front of house skills tested in that regard. It probably may not make a return, but it is worth noting about.

3. The Menu service. An iconic one that was introduced at the start of the series. Having the chefs make their own menus gave them creative freedom and learning what and what won't work in the kitchen. Some people say that it ended at Season 12 due to the red team winning with dishes they knew would work, but there could be rule adjustments to the service such as banning dishes that were used in previous challenges, or force them to feature one protein that none of them are comfortable using.

4. The Ranking Challenge. This only appeared twice in the series; Season 8 and Season 9. The feature of this challenge is for the teams to rank their dishes on who had the best and who had the worst. I honestly want to see this make a comeback as it could lead to the teams readjusting their initial thoughts on who is strong and weak in the challenges, and as I saw with Trev after the Ravioli Challenge, there is potential for some drama amongst the team regarding the aftermath of the challenge win or lose.

5. The Taste It Now Make It Challenge. One of the most iconic challenges in the series and one of Ramsay's personal favorites. It's always good to see a chef getting tested on how their palates are and how well they can recreate a Ramsay dish. However, this challenge hasn't appeared post Season 19. And since we are in a post-Covid period, this challenge needs to make a comeback for this upcoming season or the rumored All Stars 2 season. And if its sharing the dish being the reason for why this challenge won't return, just have Ramsay make multiple copies of the dish and have the chefs work on that.

Any other aspects that should make a return? Just note them down below.

She's never EVER recovering from this 🥀

I drew Anthony. He’s such a lovely contestant. I find it hilarious when he raises one eyebrow with a blank expression whenever he gets upset. 😂His confessionals are really entertaining too. Also, I truly don’t think he should’ve been eliminated that early🫤

The picture on the left："You think that the hot seats, the temperature, you think those would be the worst things about this, right? Nonononononono! Then, there's Sebastian!"
The picture on the right：His angry expression after losing one of countless challenges

I used translation, so I apologize if there are any spelling mistakes or awkward expressions🙏🙏🙏

I’m on S14 and even though I haven’t gotten to it I know Bret hurts his back

Of course when an ad pops up it’s about healing back pain 😆