Hell's Kitchen (American TV series) season 3

This article contains contestant information and episode summaries from Season 3 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen. Cast during February 2007, the third season started airing on the FOX television network on June 4, 2007. The winner is promised a head-chef position at a restaurant in the Green Valley Ranch resort and spa in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas.

The Hell's Kitchen set has moved from a building at LaBrea and Willoughby, where it was located for seasons one and two to a building on Sawtelle for season three. During Episode 9 (aired July 30, 2007), a casting call was announced for the fourth season of the show.

Chef and staff members

• Chef - Gordon Ramsay
• Sous chefs - Scott Leibfield, Maryann Salcedo
• Maître d' - Jean-Philippe Susilovic

Contestants

The third season features the following contestants on the initial teams, separated by gender:

Men's Team (Blue)/Women's Team (Red)

• Aaron Song, 48, a retirement-home chef from Rancho Palos Verdes, California
• Brad Miller, 25, a sous chef from Scottsdale, Arizona
• Eddie Langley, 28, a grill cook from Atlanta, Georgia
• Josh Wahler, 26, a junior sous chef from Miami Beach, Florida
• Rock Harper, 30, an executive chef from Spotsylvania, Virginia
• Vinnie Fama, 29, a night-club chef from Milltown, New Jersey
• Bonnie Muirhead, 26, a nanny/personal chef from Los Angeles, California
• Jen Yemola, 26, a pastry chef from Hazleton, Pennsylvania
• Joanna Dunn, 22, a chef's assistant from Detroit, Michigan
• Julia Williams, 28, a short-order cook from Atlanta, Georgia
• Tiffany Nagel, 27, a kitchen manager from Scottsdale, Arizona
• Melissa Firpo, 29, a line cook from New York, New York (Switched to the Blue Team at the end of Episode 5)

Black Team

In Episode 8, the final five cooks were merged into one team - the Black Team.

• Bonnie Muirhead
• Jen Yemola
• Josh Wahler
• Julia Williams
• Rock Harper

Final Dinner Service

Past Contestants: Jen, Julia, Josh, Brad, Melissa, Vinnie (seen in preview @ end of episode 9)

Rock's Team:

• Sous Chef Scott

Bonnie's Team:

• Sous Chef Mary Ann

Episode Progress Table

Each week, the best member (as determined by Ramsay) from the losing team during the latest service period is asked to nominate two of their fellow teammates for elimination; one of these two is sent home by Ramsay.

Chef	3011	302	3032	3043	305	3065	307	3087	309	310	Chef Ramsay's reason
Bonnie	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	NOM	WIN	NOM	Best	IN
Rock	WIN	BoW	WIN	BoW	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	IN
Jen	LOSE	WIN	NOM	BoW	BoW	WIN	LOSE	IN	OUT		Ramsay gave no reason, but she missed a (deliberate) error by Chef Scott while working the pass and also ruined a risotto.
Julia	LOSE	WIN	LOSE2	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	BoW6	OUT			"In order to be a chef you must have a natural talent. Clearly, Julia has it. She just needs a little bit more experience. After that, she will be ready to run her own restaurant."
Josh	WIN	NOM	WIN	LOSE4	WIN	NOM	LOSE	OUT8			Josh made the same mistake throughout the service and got eliminated during dinner service.
Brad	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOM	OUT				"Brad was a hard worker. Unfortunately, he worked with his back rather than his brain. He lacked finesse to become a great chef."
Melissa	BoW	WIN	LOSE	LOSE4	SWCH	OUT					"With Melissa, she's very assertive, and she sounds like a leader, but unfortunately, she doesn't cook like a leader."
Vinnie	WIN	LOSE	WIN	OUT							"Vinnie talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. The bottom line with Vinnie is, he's a crap cook."
Joanna	NOM	WIN	OUT								"Not only did Joanna serve rancid crab that could've seriously made a customer ill, she completely gave up, screwed her team, and if you can't handle one individual section, you got no chance of running a business."
Aaron	WIN	LOSE	OUT								After several cases of fainting, he was told to leave the Kitchen due to illness.
Eddie	WIN	OUT									"Eddie's got a big heart, sadly, he couldn't even hold his own section. He made far too many simple mistakes, and he didn't merit running his own restaurant."
Tiffany	OUT										"To be a great chef, you need great attention to detail, passion, and great work ethic. Tiffany worked hard, but that was it. Nothing else."

Template:FnbChef Ramsay declared that neither team won after the dinner service, but that one team was a losing team; the non-losing team is labeled as the winning team here in this table.
Template:FnbJulia was nominated by her team, but Chef Ramsay told her she didn't belong in the nominations and told her to return to the line.
Template:FnbChef Ramsay declared that neither team won, and that there would be one nomination from the best of each team.
Template:Fnb Member was nominated for elimination by their team but Chef Ramsay overuled the nomination and selected a different member (for elimination nomination) instead.
Template:Fnb The original nominees were Josh and Melissa. However, Chef Ramsay didn't even hear the nominees, and eliminated Melissa. He then called up Josh and Brad, and threatened to eliminate them both. At the end, Chef Ramsay decided to give the two another chance.
Template:Fnb Julia was declared the best of the worst on the red team, however the Blue team had no best of the worst, and as a team came up with one nominee.
Template:FnbAll competitors were combined into one team (black) this episode
Template:FnbJosh made the same mistake throughout the service and got eliminated during dinner service.

  Contestant was a member of the Winning Team.

  Contestant was a member of the Losing Team.

  Contestant was the leader and nominator of the Losing Team; Best of Worst (BoW)

  Contestant was nominated for elimination but prevailed.

  Contestant was going to be eliminated but was forced to switch teams instead.

  Contestant was eliminated

  Single team - contestant won pre elimination competition, was eliminated

  Single team - contestant moved on in individual competition

  Contestant no longer present

Episodes

Episode 1

• Original airdate: June 4, 2007.
• Introduction: For this episode, FOX added a parental advisory notification to the TV14 rating. The episode opened with Gordon Ramsay seated at a table in the restaurant, telling viewers he was going to be nicer this time around. After a few seconds, he admitted he was joking. The contestants arrived, and maître d’ Jean Philippe Susilovic began to brief the chefs, until Chef Ramsay interrupted, instructing the contestants to get to the kitchen and prepare their "signature dish".
• Signature Dishes: Each contestant prepared their signature dish for evaluation by Chef Ramsay. He declared Melissa's peppered steak and asparagus as the best.
• Teams: The men and women were separated into two teams: the Blue Team (men) and the Red Team (women). The teams were required to prepare standard menu items for the Hell's Kitchen evening patrons.
• Dinner: When Chef Ramsay asked the red team how they were doing, Julia said her team had poor communication skills, which the other women denied. When the blue team was asked the same question, Aaron burst into tears and Ramsay had to calm him down. The red team, especially Tiffany, struggled for quite some time with their inability to cook quail eggs. At one point, Ramsay tried having Bonnie help Tiffany with the eggs, but it didn't work. On the blue team, Vinnie tried to bring his spaghetti appetizer to the hotplate, but Chef Ramsay rejected it for being overcooked and glue-like. Julia was kept on the sidelines even though she repeatedly asked Tiffany to let her make eggs (due to other contestants disparaging her short order cook background; i.e. a Waffle House cook). When Chef Ramsay again asked for quail eggs, Julia broke down and said that she was trying to help, but they wouldn't let her. An exasperated Ramsay pulled her aside and quietly said "All I want is some food." He fired Tiffany from the station, put Melissa in her place, and told Julia to cook the quail eggs. Meanwhile, on the blue team, Ramsay caught Vinnie putting water in a risotto. Vinnie claimed that the team was out of vegetable stock, and when Ramsay tasted the risotto in question, he said it tasted like "gnat's piss". He demoted Vinnie to dishwashing and put Brad in his place. Back in the red kitchen, arguments continued to flare amongst the girls (particularly between Melissa and Joanna), much to Chef Ramsay's chagrin. Meanwhile, back in the blue kitchen, Aaron continued to cry and had to go take a break, causing Ramsay to abandon the hotplate and calm him down. Josh took over his station (the meat station), but the chicken was overcooked and there was no more chicken left. The blue team ran out of food and the red team kept bickering. Frustrated diners started leaving the restaurant, and after hearing another argument in the red kitchen, Ramsay reached his boiling point and shut down the kitchen, causing all the contestants to feel defeated. After a disastrous dinner service, Ramsay declared there was no winner. He asked Vinnie for an explanation for his horrendous performance. Vinnie said that he didn't show him what he wanted, so he had no idea. Ramsay called him a "two-faced lazy (expletive)". But of the two groups, he decided the red team was the worse. He dubbed them "Hell's Bitches", which would continue to be used as a nickname for the girl's team throughout the season, and said he had never heard girls bitch so much. Melissa, who had taken over the line duties and helped her team make up ground, was declared the best of the losing red team, as things started to happen when she was put on appetizers. Back in the dorms, the majority of the girls blamed Julia for her inexperience ("She works at the (expletive) Waffle House!" said Tiffany in private). Julia rebutted by saying she at least tried to help out.
• Nominees for elimination: Joanna and Tiffany, Joanna because of how she communicated with Melissa during the service, and Tiffany because of how long it took for the appetizers to go out. Tiffany was eliminated, because Ramsay thought Tiffany brought nothing to the table besides hard work.

Episode 2

• Original Airdate: June 11, 2007
• Challenge The teams were woken up early to retrieve and prepare Dover sole for the dinner service. While bringing the fish in, Aaron claimed to suffer from cramps and Chef Ramsay excused him from the challenge, automatically balancing out the teams. The teams had 30 minutes to carefully remove the skin and extract the roe from as many fish as possible; Chef Ramsay inspected each one and made a pass/fail determination. The Red team won with 9 perfectly-prepared fish (after Joanna's three were all prepared correctly) to the Blue team's 8, and won a fishing trip with Chef Ramsay for the day, while the Blue team had to prepare the remaining sole for the dinner service.
• Dinner Based on Aaron's current physical state, Chef Ramsay instructed Aaron to work in the dining room by deboning the Dover sole when served, but he was found talking to diners, took too long, and left large bones in their fish. The Blue team had other problems in the kitchen; Eddie cooked too much pasta at once and used too much pepper in the risotto, causing Chef Ramsay to dismiss it as "inedible" and something he "wouldn't even serve to a (expletive) pig", while Josh undercooked some of the meat courses and tried to obscure this information from Chef Ramsay. The Red team worked well and was able to complete their dinner service. Chef Ramsay, near the end of Red team's successful service, completely dismissed the Blue team from the kitchen and had the Red team complete Blue team's service. After the service, the Red team was the clear winner, and Chef Ramsay pointed to Aaron, Eddie, and Josh as the worst of the Blue team, and determined that Rock was the only member who didn't make any mistakes, instructing him to nominate two people for elimination.
• Nominees for Elimination Eddie was selected for not being able to handle his station during dinner service and for being the "little man" on the team. Josh was selected because Rock saw him as someone that would hide the truth from his team and not a good teammate. Eddie was ultimately booted from the show.

Episode 3

• Original Airdate: June 18, 2007
• Challenge: The teams woke up to military reveille, being ordered to dress and get down to the kitchen. When they arrived, they were informed they were making breakfast for the Army and Navy (Red Team for the Army and Blue for the Navy). The winner would be the one that completed their breakfast service first. Julia took charge of the Red Team, and her short order experience put them ahead from start to finish. The Blue Team was unable to work together effectively, and lost the challenge; Ramsay requested, once the Red Team completed their service, that Julia go over temporarily to lead the Blue Team in order to complete the entire breakfast service.
• Reward/Punishment: The Red Team members were rewarded with a helicopter ride and a meal with Chef Ramsay aboard the USS Midway. The Blue Team's punishment was KP duty, preparing produce consisting of a thousand pounds of potatoes and onions for a military base. Aaron fainted as the Blue Team began KP duty, and was transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment. The remaining members of the Blue Team completed KP duty and returned to the Kitchen.
• Withdrawal: Before the Dinner service, Chef Ramsay called Aaron, who was at the hospital, and said he could no longer participate on the show, due to his ongoing illness and doctor's orders. Despite pleas to come back to Hell's Kitchen, Aaron was forced to withdraw from the show, the second time in the history of the series that someone had to withdraw due to illness.
• Dinner: The Blue team started one man down when Aaron withdrew from the show due to his illness. Under Brad's leadership (a choice with which Rock disagreed), the Blue Team got off to a good start, but bogged down with the entrees. The Red Team kept running into problems with appetizers, and didn't complete its service. Chef Ramsay saw Brad scraping a burned Wellington that was supposed to be rare. In the end, patrons of both kitchens walked out due to the delayed service, and Chef Ramsay ended the service. Neither team won, but the Red Team was chosen the worst of the two. Instead of selecting the best of the worst, Chef Ramsay instructed the entire Red team to nominate two people for elimination.
• Nominees for Elimination: After trying to serve crab that was rancid, Joanna was an obvious choice for the first nomination. Also, despite strong performance in the morning, the women who were critical of Julia's unfamiliarity with cuisine terminology nominated her, despite Jen's faux pas of retrieving pasta from the garbage to serve it. When the time came, however, Jen volunteered to be nominated, and admitted what she had done to Chef Ramsay. In her defense, Julia plainly said she didn't know any reason why she should have been nominated, and Chef Ramsay clearly agreed, sending her back in line. Ultimately, Ramsay chose to eliminate Joanna, but he told Jen to stay out of the rubbish bin.

Episode 4

• Original Airdate: June 25, 2007
• Challenge: Both teams were blindfolded individually and wore headphones as Chef tested their palates with three items each in this challenge. They were served items like egg yolk, fried chicken, pear, seared tuna and several others. During Bonnie's turn, she said she could still hear Chef through the headphones. Chef readjusted the headphones then asked her if she could hear him again, and she replied with a "Huh?" Chef cursed to himself and adjusted the phones again, and yet again repeated the question. Bonnie stayed silent, and proceeded with her taste test. Vinnie and the rest of the blue team mentioned that it was very suspicious with Vinnie later flat out accusing Bonnie of cheating. Nevertheless, the women (Red Team) won after correctly guessing the most foods.
• Reward/Punishment: The Red Team was treated to a dining service in the dark with Chef Ramsay at the restaurant Opaque. All the while the Blue Team not only had to prepare the blue kitchen for dinner service, they had to prep for the Red Team's kitchen and further "test their palates" by eating offal such as cow's tongue, liver and kidney. After several gags and tauntings from Vinnie, Rock nearly threw up.
• Dinner Service: For this service, the customers would fill out comment cards on their food, which would decide the winner. Melissa started off badly on appetizers; she tried to push Julia on preparation time even after Julia told her when they would be done. Chef Ramsay commented that this did not show good leadership. Bonnie wouldn't give Chef a clear answer on whether or not her chicken was ready and breaks down crying. (Later, she lamented that she isn't cut out to do this type of work and that she should go back to being a personal chef since her clients were her friends.) She had trouble understanding Chef Ramsay's instructions, and over the course of the evening he called her a "stupid cow," a "dumb blonde," and a "stupid nanny". Vinnie had trouble with his Beef Wellingtons and he is caught trying to flash grill rare Wellingtons in the oven to make them appear medium. After wasting six Wellingtons and a chicken, the Chef accused him of "not caring.". Both kitchens got numerous dishes returned. Fish was salty, spaghetti was undercooked, and meat was cold. After mutiple dishes returned, Ramsay said that if one dish was brought back from either kitchen, the service would be aborted. After a customer complained of cold chicken, Ramsay stuck to his promise and shut the kitchen down.
• Eliminations: Ramsay said while the customers enjoyed most of the food, over 65% if them would not return due to having to wait too long for their food. He said "Your restaurant would fail with those numbers, that's why there is no winning team in Hell's Kitchen tonight." Chef Ramsay said that once again there was no losing or winning team and that one nominee from each team should be chosen. He picked Jen and Rock as the "best of the worst", and strongly suggested that they should choose the team's weakest members. Jen nominated Melissa for her lack of teamwork and poor leadership, because she did not want Bonnie to leave, even in spite of her poor performance. Rock's nominee was Josh, giving the reason that he felt Josh had reached the limit of his abilities and was not fit to continue. (Josh worried that Rock had a personal vendetta against him, as this was the second time Rock had nominated him.) Surprised and disappointed by the two's picks, Chef Ramsay overruled their decisions and he himself picked Bonnie and Vinnie calling out both as the weakest members on their respective teams. The Chef finally decided to eliminate Vinnie, saying the night-club cook had revealed his full potential and was no longer qualified to compete in the show.

Episode 5

• Original Airdate: July 2, 2007
• Challenge: A wedding couple made reservations for their reception to be held at Hell's Kitchen. The first part of the challenge was to buy the needed foods. They got $100 and 30 minutes to buy the foods needed. They also had one hour to cook the foods. The couple came in a day early to try out both the team's food. The team with the most dishes chosen from their menu by the couple would be the winner. During the prep/cooking time of one hour, Melissa appointed herself the group leader and ordered her teammates around like a drill sergeant, though the Chef scolded her for it later. This was hightlighted when Julia asked Bonnie a question about a particular technique and Melissa angrily retorted, "Listen to me, not Bonnie." This led to constant bickering and eye-rolling for the rest of the challenge. After time is up, the to-be-wed couple came to sample the teams' menus. The men won in appetizers, and the women won in fish entree. It all came down to the meat entree. The men had a perfect steak, while Melissa tried to keep Jen from serving Julia's duck dish that Melissa overcooked by putting it back in the oven to keep warm even after Julia told her it would be overdone. Chef Ramsay was furious that Melissa was whispering to Jen not to serve it and asked what kind of stunt she was trying to pull by disrespecting the couple and embarrassing him. When Jen set the plate on the table and took the cover off, under it appeared a small, overcooked duck breast on an otherwise empty plate. Chef Ramsay was very upset with the Red Team, stating he had never been so embarrassed in his own kitchen. The men beat the women two to one.
• Reward/Punishment: The men's reward was a day of pampering at a spa complete with acupuncture and a massage. The women's punishment was to decorate the dining room for the upcoming wedding reception. Melissa continued her tirade during the setup by badgering the other ladies constantly on whether or not they could handle their job, as whatever it was she could basically do it better and faster. She even pesters the the wedding planner who is supervising the decoration efforts.
• Dinner Service: The newlyweds and their party entered the dining room and the husband and wife were served first. Both teams would have to serve the 3 winning dishes from earlier, and Melissa ran into a quarrel with Rock, as her potato dish was prepared incorrectly, angering Chef Ramsay once again. The women also quickly got agitated with Melissa because she wouldn't stop talking and asking if anyone needed help. By running her mouth she became behind on her station. Melissa, in not paying attention, set down her cream sauce, which fell over in its water bath. She went over to the men's kitchen to beg for some of theirs. Chef Ramsay saw this and yelled at her to get back over to her side and fix it from scratch, saying the boys didn't make enough for both sides and it wasn't their fault she made the mistake. However, the night wasn't all bad as it was the first completed service since starting the new season. The red team was picked as the losers as the blue team finished three minutes ahead of them. (Only Julia and Jen from the red team received compliments from Chef Ramsay.)
• Eliminations: Jen was chosen to eliminate two contestants from her team as Chef Ramsay felt like she emerged as a leader that night and did a good job. After much consideration, Jen chose Melissa, for her attitude and mouth, and Bonnie, despite her impeccable service, for previous problems. Jen clearly wanted Melissa gone, but had formed a bond with Bonnie and was confident that she could survive elimination. Chef Ramsay told Melissa to give him her coat (which usually means a contestant is going home) but instead gave her a blue coat and she was sent over to the blue team. The men were upset with this turn of events because they (particularly Rock) disliked Melissa as much as the women. This is the first time in the history of Hell's Kitchen that no one was sent home (likely due to Aaron's withdrawal for medical reasons disrupting the show's scheduled airings). About Melissa, Ramsay later said that "He had never seen such a terrific chef turn into such a bad one so quickly".

Episode 6

• Original Airdate: July 9, 2007
• Challenge: The two teams are required to make three lobster dishes in one hour. To even out the teams, and in punishment for failing to identify lobster from Episode 4's taste test, Josh is excluded from the challenge. He is allowed to coach the team, but he is not allowed to touch a lobster. Also, both teams must start with fresh lobsters from a tank, which worries Bonnie. Chef Ramsay takes notice of this and barks at her, at which point she reveals that she does not like to kill living things. She states that "I cry whenever I kill one." To which Rock retorts "so do the lobsters." She does, however, overcome this fear, and successfully boils her own lobster. The first head-to-head is Bonnie vs. Melissa on the salad which Bonnie wins. The second is Julia vs. Rock, which Rock wins. The last is Jen vs. Brad on the bisque. Chef Ramsay compliments both chefs, but he chooses Jen's and the Red team triumphs. He later mentions that this was the hardest decision so far.
• Reward/Punishment: Since the Blue team lost their challenge, they have to go through the garbage, separating out the recyclables. Rock is visibly angry with the Chef's decision and grumbles that, although he grew up in a poor neighborhood, he thinks this punishment is a bit extreme. Meanwhile the Red team is taken to a photo shoot for In Touch magazine. When Rock goes off on a tirade about how the team lost, he is singled out for further punishment; he is summoned to the photo shoot and ordered to separate the recyclables from the trash there as well.
• Dinner Service: Chef Ramsay informs the teams they will be making familiar dishes, such as risotto, sea bass, Beef Wellington, spaghetti, and also featured Bonnie's newly created lobster salad. The women get off to an excellent start, and the Chef compliments them in his own back-handed sort of way. They are communicating well and getting their food out quickly. The blue team does not perform as well: the scallops are too thin, and the risotto and potatoes are overcooked. Brad gets an order wrong, and all of the men except for Rock perform poorly. In the Red kitchen, a few small mistakes crop up. Bonnie accidentally causes a fire on the stove, Julia gives Ramsay the wrong dish, and she gets into an argument with Bonnie. However, the women overcome the mistakes and end up serving all of their dishes. The men struggle on appetizers and an entire table of six sends back their food because their lobster is overcooked. This enrages Chef Ramsay and he orders the kitchen closed.
• Elimination: The men agree to put up Melissa and Josh for nomination. However, Ramsay selects Melissa without even asking the men who they chose and eliminates her without even asking her to justify why she should stay. The Chef then calls up Brad and Josh and threatens to eliminate both of them as well, but he decides to give them another chance. Ramsay later comments that he was surprised how fast Brad and Josh fell apart.

Episode 7

• Original Airdate: July 16, 2007
• Challenge Each team was given an identical tray of leftovers and instructed to make three courses: one appetizer and two entrees. The winning dishes were judged by Chef Ramsay. Both teams produced equally good appetizers as Bonnie had her rustic chicken soup against Brad's pasta. Chef granted them both a point. Josh and Jen were up next with Jen's steak and eggs and Josh's sea bass although neither receive a point because Jen's lacked originality and Josh's tasted horrible. Rock also made a sea bass dish that went up against Julia's fish and chips which were tasty but not as elegant as Rock's. The Blue team won the challenge.
• Reward/Punishment: The Blue team was given the chance to participate in a 3-on-1 paintball match against Chef Ramsay. They jumped at the chance saying how no one ever got the chance to take out frustrations on their boss and they would take full advantage. The Red team was required to receive, check, and bring in the food delivery for the evening service, with Bonnie in charge of checking/ marking the packing slip. Notably, Bonnie missed the fact that unsalted butter and turbot skeletons were delivered instead of the correct salted butter and turbot filets. The errors meant that the Red team had to arrange re-delivery of the missing items, working longer than they had expected. Bonnie felt horrible and thought that she would be sent home for her mistakes.
• Evening Service: Each team had to create a menu of 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts; the diners were allowed to select from either menu for their meal. The Red team's dishes were mostly standard fare, including Julia's last minute add-on of steak and shrimp, while the Blue team's dishes were generally fine dining meals that mostly Brad created. Both teams were able to make it through the dinner service, but both had significant problems. Chef Ramsay noted the women lacked stamina and was upset that they refused to communicate with each other. Jen had an attitude most the night and kept snapping at Bonnie. Julia begged the girls to keep their service positive while struggling on the last set of entrees in order to make it through. The Blue team, led by Brad, had difficulties with a lamb dish and had several plates come back with complaints on Brad's ravioli and then his gravy. While Chef was mad at Josh for messing up the lamb, he was also equally mad at Brad and Rock, because they did not help Josh with the lamb when he was in the weeds. They made Josh get himself out of the mess which completely hurt the team. Chef Ramsay declared neither team a winner, but noted that Julia was the most consistent chef during the service and that her steak and shrimp dish, while initially rejected by the Red team, turned out to be the most popular. He had her nominate a player from the Red team for elimination, while he instructed the Blue team to come up with a nominee for elimination on their own.
• Elimination: Julia selected Bonnie for elimination due to some of the mistakes she had made in service and the way she seems to get flustered during service. Brad stepped up to be nominated as he was team leader and Josh said he refused to go on the chopping block because he was tired of being the team's whipping boy. Chef Ramsay called Bonnie's name giving everyone the impression that she was about to be sent home but he followed that by telling her to "wake up" and then eliminated Brad because while he had stepped up as leader, he only performed "as a cook" during the service.

Episode 8

• Original Airdate: July 23, 2007
• Reward: At the beginning of the episode, Chef Ramsay congratulated the chefs with champagne and then told them to go upstairs and put on their black jackets, as they were all now one team.
• Challenge: Each chef, individually had to prepare 100 portions of a dish for "trendsetters" (with meals planned at least one week in advance). They later learned the "trendsetters" was a high school class at Alhambra High School in Alhambra, California. Julia won the challenge with 51 percent of the votes, and her prize was to visit the Green Valley Ranch. She was allowed to pick one chef to go with her and eventually chose Jen. They got a chance to see the GVR, and also went to the Red Rock Resort to meet Heather, the winner of season 2. The losers had to clean the dining room (Josh's difficulty in handling the carpet shampoo machine was a source of amusement).
• Evening Service: The kitchens united to serve all 100 tables in the restaurant. Josh got off to a bad start by pre-making too many risottos. Julia also struggled with forgetting things on the garnish station. Josh then pre-cooked spaghetti twice, and Chef Ramsay just about had it. When he did get risottos out, every single one was returned. Chef had enough and simply kicked Josh off the show. Even Rock made mistakes as he overcooked some scallops, which lead Chef to say "Rock has hit rock-bottom". As service continued, Jen and Bonnie performed strongly, but Rock's temper once again got the best of him, as he and Jen quarreled repeatedly (to which Rock later admitted privately that he was at fault). Julia had more troubles on garnish, but recovered. In the end, the 4 chefs were able to successfully complete the dinner service.
• Early Elimination: Josh was eliminated during mid-service due to his consistent inability to serve a successful appetizer, and repeated dumb mistakes at the beginning of service, which brought Chef Ramsay to the end of his patience.
• Elimination: Chef made it clear that even though Josh was eliminated, one other chef would still be sent home tonight. Bonnie was declared the best of the service, and had to choose two for elimination. She chose Rock and Julia. The choice wasn't easy (Chef Ramsay was visibly troubled by the dilemma of picking between a very driven and talented chef and a chef that had grown and exhibited great potential) and at the end Chef Ramsay eliminated Julia. However, he said he will personally send Julia to culinary arts school, and invite her to come back after school, something he never did on the show ever before.

Episode 9

• Original Airdate: July 30, 2007
• Challenge: Chef Ramsay started the challenge by bringing in his mother and having her present her own mac 'n cheese (comfort food) and then producing his own in a more elegant version. He then told each chef to randomly select one of the 5 covered dishes and change it to a gourmet dish. Rock's turned out to be spaghetti, Bonnie's was Franks and Beans, and Jen's ended up being Fried Chicken. Bonnie carried on for several minutes about not knowing what Franks and Beans even was. After having 1 hour to complete their dishes Chef Ramsay brought in their mothers to judge. All three contestants were in tears at this surprise. Their mothers were sat with their backs to the chefs so that they did not know who made which dish which made the judging unbiased. Jen won the challenge after all three mothers chose her stuffed fried chicken breasts as the best dish.
• Reward/Punishment: Jen got to go out with her mother, Chef Ramsey and his mum for lunch. Ramsey then dropped her off at a kitchen supply warehouse and gave her $1000 to go "hog wild". On a deleted scene, Jen said that she spent $300 buying Bonnie and Rock Kasumi steak knives. Jen felt like she really gained an edge in the competition by having this alone time with Chef. Rock and Bonnie had to work together to clean the dormitories where Bonnie complained the whole time. Rock noted that Bonnie knew surprisingly little about cleaning for being a professional Nanny. Bonnie admitted that she is really only a "Nanny" in that she sometimes watches her clients' kids while performing as their personal chef.
• Dinner Service: Before dinner service, Chef Ramsay had each contestant practice their angriest dressing down to his face. Bonnie noted how satisfying it was to have the rare opportunity to curse at Ramsay for a change. Jen struggled being serious but including many "f---s" to get her point across. Rock also struggled with coming across effectively. During service, Chef made each contestant work the pass, calling out orders and putting the finishing touches on dishes before handing them off to the servers. Chef tested each contestant on their leadership, time management, and quality control. He had sous-chefs Scott and MaryAnn deliberately sabotage dishes to see if the contestants would catch the mistakes. While Jen missed a spaghetti dish that went out without any crab she was also the first chef to the pass giving the other two a chance to pick up on Ramsay's plan. Rock was slow to pass dishes to servers and Bonnie became flustered when calling out orders. Nevertheless, Chef Ramsay did not criticize the contestants as harshly as he had in the past and they completed the service effectively.
• Elimination: Chef said that their service was the best ever in Hell's Kitchen and he would have a very difficult decision. All three went back to the dorm and Jen questioned Bonnie's motive for wanting to stay asking her if this is really what she wanted. Jen didn't feel as though this was a serious dream for Bonnie. All were called before Chef Ramsay and after hearing their reasons to stay, Chef decided to eliminate Jen. Chef congratulated her and sent her out. After the elimination, Chef Ramsay surprised Rock and Bonnie with a visit from Rock's wife and Bonnie's parents, and a tarp rolls down from above, symbolically splitting the restaurant into two sections for the next show.

Episode 10 (Season Finale)

• Original Airdate: August 6, 2007
• Start: A recap of the entire series is shown, showing all the punishments, important events, and how each chef was kicked out. After the introduction, the two chefs meet their family--Rock meets his wife and Bonnie meets her mother and father.
• Challenge: Hell's Kitchen is separated into two sides, red side for Bonnie and blue side for Rock. Both chefs were to begin planning for their side of restaurant. They must plan how the restaurant should look, how things are arranged, and how things are to be run. They both spend time celebrating during the night but realize it is now the battle of the sexes. Both chefs get to meet an architect which would help them complete what they want for their side of the restaurant.
• Reward/Punishment:
• Dinner Service:

External links

• Fox.com - Hell's Kitchen official home page
• Reality TV World - Hell's Kitchen, Season 3