‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Season 15, Episode 1 Recap

Gordon Ramsay of “Hell’s Kitchen.” (FOX)

Gordon Ramsay, everyone’s favorite screaming, harsh, 15 Michelin-star- winning chef has returned for the 15 season of “Hell’s Kitchen.” Each season, nearly 20 chefs compete against one another for the highly coveted spot as head chef of a prize restaurant. Over the course of the competition, the chefs are under high pressure from the challenges, dinner services, and critiques from Ramsay.

Season 15 started off with the chefs stepping off the bus in Los Angeles, where they are greeted by Marino, the maitre d’. They discover a slot machine, and after pulling it, are delighted to discover that they are being flown to Las Vegas. Once they arrive, they are greeted by the mayor, Carolyn G. Goodman, who praises the competition for employing the highest amount of head chefs in Las Vegas. They are then taken on a high-roller to the prize-restaurant, BLT Steak in Las Vegas, and meet the man of the hour himself: Gordon Ramsay. After screams of joy and appreciation, he announces where they are and the future winner’s salary: a whooping $250,000. He also reveals this season’s new sous chefs: Chef Aaron, who will help the Blue Team, and Chef Christina, the winner of Season 10 and the helper for the Red Team.

Signature Dish Challenge

The chefs are given 45 minutes to prepare a stunning dish of his or her own in order to impress Chef Ramsay. While some dishes are impressive and others barely get one point out of five, Chef Ramsay is appalled with Kevin. Kevin prepared a Cesar salad pizza — essentially, he made a pizza and dumped Cesar salad on top of it. Chef Ramsay is even more horrified to discover that the dough was store-bought and the Cesar dressing is pre-made. Kevin promises to do better after Chef Ramsay threatens to send him home.

The Blue Team manages to edge out the Red Team, totaling 24 points over the Red Team’s 22 points. Their reward is tour of Vegas on the high roller, ending with a night in the VIP section of Dre’s Nightclub. The men head off to celebrate, while the women are relegated to prepping hundreds of potatoes and squash for a brunch in a Vegas restaurant.

Dinner Service

The first dinner service of the season is a huge opening night for Hell’s Kitchen, as many celebrity guests show up with high expectations. Audrina Patridge and cast members from “Rich Kids of Beverly Hills” were among those who were able to score a table.

The overall night is shaky. The Red Team starts off as messy, with Vanessa completely falling apart on appetizers. First, she serves Chef Ramsay a burnt pizza and appears to have a mini panic attack when he confronts her about it. Next, she serves him squash that is cold in the middle, and the overall presentation of the squash appetizer is pathetic. Surprisingly, Chef Ramsay assigns the entire Red Team to help Vanessa on appetizers instead of kicking her out of the kitchen. In their interviews, the ladies are not too happy about that and hope Vanessa will go home soon. However, the rest of the service seems to go by smoothly.

The Blue Team gets off to a good start once they send their first appetizer, but after that, the ship sails. Alan fires an uncalled entrée while they are still sending out appetizers, and gets reprimanded by Chef Ramsay. Alan doesn’t redeem himself when he later serves rubbery scallops at the same time Mark presents a burnt pizza. Frank has to jump from the dessert section to save Mark and make a new pizza, which gets served. Mark latter messes up on a risotto dish that Eddie tried to help him with, and Chef Aaron relegates both of them to eat it.

Right as Chef Ramsay is smashing the cold shrimp that is served to him by the men, a table that the Blue Team was supposed to be serving gets frustrated with waiting and walks out. Exasperated, Chef Ramsay declares the men as the losers of the night, kicks them out of the kitchen and tells them to nominate two chefs that they think should go home. He then heads over to congratulate the women for completing the dinner service without too many slip-ups. While they are excited, Jackie states that they shouldn’t get too comfortable, as they weren’t completely perfect.

Nominations and Elimination

The Blue Team heads upstairs to make their decision on who will be going up for elimination. They unanimously decide on Mark, who had been on a downward spiral during the whole dinner service. However, they have a harder time deciding between Kevin and Alan. Both plead their case; with Kevin getting emotional, but back downstairs it is revealed that Kevin is the second nominee.

Kevin and Mark both tell Chef Ramsay that they will work harder, but he is noticeably peeved at Mark’s excuse of everything being “too overwhelming.” Ultimately, Kevin is spared and Mark is sent home for being a disaster from the start.

Reach Staff Reporter Adrianne Ramsey here.