Hell’s Kitchen is a reality TV series starring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Out of all the shows the chef has hosted, it is by far the best one, and has lasted for over 20 seasons with no signs of slowing down any time soon. The premise is that a series of chefs stay at the eponymous restaurant, cooking dinner services under the watchful eye of Chef Ramsay, with the best-performing chef winning a job as head chef at a new restaurant.
The reason it’s so entertaining is, of course, Gordon’s repeated blowups and smackdowns, which are sort of a trademark for him, but also due to the revolving door of contestants. Each of these contestants brings their own unique personality and skill set to the show, but of course, this can be either a blessing or a curse. Some contestants are insanely talented, and are wonderfully compassionate to boot, while others should never have set foot in the restaurant in the first place. These are the worst contestants to ever be featured on Hell’s Kitchen, whether due to their poor cooking skills, lax motivation, or their unwillingness to work as a team.
10.Antonia Boregman
Season 8
Antonia Boregman didn’t even make it to the first dinner service, though this was due to a serious medical issue. So there really wasn’t a lot to judge her on, but what little she presented was enough. During the signature dish challenge, Antonia presented a bowl of gumbo, which she apparently makes all the time. Right away, Gordon noted that it looked like a plate full of diarrhea, and he was gagging because it was so disgusting. Antonia kind of had a snarky attitude and demanded Gordon just throw it away, but Gordon instead opted to pass it around the room and have the rest of the chefs taste it.
Their faces say it all as they all take a mouthful of gumbo. It was sickening, and as one chef called it “completely repulsive,” with another likening it to a big bowl of mud. Very few signature dishes have received this level of negative reception, so it’s not likely Antonia would have lasted long anyway. Still, this is the only thing she presented, which saves her from being the absolute worst.
9.Gina Aloise
Season 11
Gina Aloise had a very strange introduction to the show. For some unfathomable reason, she brought a chef puppet with her, affectionately named “Alfredo Al Dente” onto the show, which she used to annoy her teammates while simultaneously thinking that they were loving it. But that wasn’t all that was questionable about her. To her credit, during the signature dish challenge, she did in fact make her dish from scratch. But that didn’t save it from being flavorless, boring, and not very imaginative.
Gina had a panic attack during one of the first episodes, becoming lost and disoriented and requiring a medic to see her, which is totally understandable given the high-pressure situation. But even after recovering and bouncing back, she was still lost and didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on. She also lacked a lot of motivation, as she didn’t really approve of being woken up early or making any sacrifices for the kitchen. She’s definitely more sympathetic than some of the other contestants, but still not very good at cooking… or at least, not in the environment she was in.
8.Mike Aresta
Season 12
Mike Aresta‘s signature dish challenge was an absolute disaster. For one, he served Gordon packaged pasta and jarred tomato sauce. Nothing about the meal was homemade, which immediately got some negative comments from Gordon, naturally. After that, Mike had the nerve to insult Gordon while he was still within earshot. If this wasn’t an indication of his future performance, nothing was.
He had very low standards, which is not what Hell’s Kitchen is about at all. For one, he was hardly willing to participate in the challenges, only doing so begrudgingly, and even got annoyed at his teammates for re-rolling some lobster ravioli that he made, because they felt it wasn’t good enough. He really should’ve let them do it, because Gordon later said the pasta Mike rolled was too thick. Womp womp. Over the course of four episodes, Mike consistently proved that he was not head chef material, and made a swift exit.
7.Monique Booker
Season 14
Monique Booker had the same problem as Mike Aresta: she used packaged food in the signature dish challenge. She had the gall to actually serve Gordon Ramsay jarred tomato sauce, which is already getting off on the wrong foot. And like Mike, her attitude about the whole thing was simply atrocious. One would think that someone intent on winning Hell’s Kitchen would try to impress Chef Ramsay rather than settle for mediocrity.
Against all odds, Monique lasted for five whole episodes, but was nominated three times. Aside from her painfully inadequate kitchen abilities, she was constantly at odds with her fellow team members, proving to Ramsay and the audience that she just wasn’t willing to work in a group setting, which is sort of an essential skill to have in a kitchen. Overall, very few were sad to see her go, mainly because she blamed everyone else for her poor cooking, and then acted like the victim when they told her the truth.
6.Tavon Hubbard
Season 10
Tavon Hubbard appeared on Season 10 of Hell’s Kitchen, and was pretty vocal about the fact that he was an executive chef at the young age of 22. Yet, an executive chef should have done better than he did. During the first dinner service of the season, Tavon sent Gordon a raw pigeon, with Gordon claiming that the thing could probably still fly. Later, another chef was reprimanded for the abysmal way in which the scallops he cooked were cut, only for it to be revealed that Tavon had cut them like that, whether intentionally, as a means of sabotage, or unintentionally.
On top of that, his attitude stunk. If he wasn’t retorting and insulting Chef Ramsay’s intelligence, he was laughing the criticisms off. As such, Gordon had seen enough, and sent Tavon away after the very first service. He later reappeared via a highlight reel in the season finale. You’ve got to be pretty terrible to earn an entire montage from only one episode. Alas, it seems he really was awful and wasn’t made to seem that way by the showrunners, because after the show, he started his own business, which has an appalling number of negative reviews.
5.Andrew Forster
Season 7
Andrew Forster was a bit scary with his introduction. He produced a steak tartare during the signature dish challenge, which is kind of a no-no considering the signature dish is supposed to be… you know… cooked. He then stated that the inspiration for the dish came from his love of slaughtering and butchering animals before eating them raw. He further went on to state that all he wanted with the money from the show was to buy two walk-in freezers to store his raw meat. Creepy beginnings aside, his cooking skills were exceptionally poor.
During the second episode, Ramsay was forced to throw him out of the kitchen because he just kept messing up and wasn’t willing to accept any level of criticism. He was assigned to do garnishes during the second service, but was sending them out way too rapidly, meaning most of them were in bad condition. Instead of restarting them, he just threw them in with the batch he was already making, messing up the second attempt, too. After being thrown out, maître d’ Jean-Philippe Susilovic told Andrew that what Ramsay wanted was for Andrew to take initiative and bounce back, but he ultimately decided he didn’t need any of this and walked away. In short, he wasn’t just bad, but he didn’t care whatsoever, and the blue team only improved after his departure.
4.Chrissa Schmerler
Season 14
Chrissa Schmerler was a food truck owner, which, obviously, is nowhere near the calibre of a fine-dining restaurant. She wasn’t quite sure what to make during the signature dish challenge, so she presented Chef Ramsay with an infamous, yet ridiculous construction: ginger cookie-crusted chicken breast. It’s no surprise that Gordon had to spit it out, because even non-cooks know that those two ingredients are simply never going to work together.
As for her personality, Chrissa was actually very sweet and non-confrontational, even though her teammates didn’t like her much. She tried to be a mediator, but was also the target of a lot of anger on behalf of her team, because most of the time she was bewildered and unfocused, not ever seeming sure of what she was doing. She may have been a nice person, but her cooking skills were just atrocious.
3.Jeremy Madden
Season 11
Chef Ramsay really tried with Jeremy Madden. Ramsay gave him opportunity after opportunity to prove himself and get better, but time and time again, it became apparent that it was hopeless. Jeremy lasted six episodes, and was pretty bad right from the get-go. Despite being a lead cook at a restaurant, he had no idea what cut of steak he served to Ramsay during the signature dish challenge. There were several repeated incidents of him not knowing the basics that every cook ought to know before getting their job, much less before competing on Hell’s Kitchen.
In the third episode, he was assigned to make a tableside appetizer, which is usually a lifesaver, because it’s more often than not the easiest job. But he somehow managed to fumble this, struggling to pick up lobsters with tongs, and seemingly forgetting who ordered the tableside appetizer. Perhaps his worst mistake was during breakfast service, where he reused a sample that Ramsay had cooked hours ago, attempting to serve it to customers. In short, Ramsay gave it his all, but Jeremy just had no idea what he was doing, and fumbled every single task he was assigned.
2.Ranjit “Raj” Brandston
Season 8
Raj Brandston‘s performance was pretty awful, but fans love him anyway. Why? Because he’s easily the most memorable contestant to ever appear on the show. Yes, he didn’t belong in Hell’s Kitchen. Yes, he was a pretty bad cook, but his quirky personality is oftentimes hilarious. The amount of chaos he caused in just three short episodes is truly remarkable, and he comes up as one of the more eccentric characters on the show.
Between his drunken karate kicks, his eating during dinner service, his blatant disregard for Chef Ramsay’s rules, and his bumbling way of going about his duties, Raj is definitely one of the most hilarious and entertaining people to ever grace audience’s screens, but he’s also far from head chef material. His teammates were relieved at his departure, even if fans had liked to see more of him and his shenanigans.
1.David “Louie” Cordio
Season 6
Louie Cordio really had a big mouth for all his talk of owning a diner back in his hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. He flaunted his position and reported success at his diner at every available opportunity, but unfortunately, his performance didn’t reflect the supposed number of customers he got. He only lasted one episode, throughout which it became abundantly clear that he was way, way out of his league. Owning a diner is one thing, but being the head chef at a fine dining restaurant is vastly different.
He is noted as having the single fastest elimination on the entire show, being thrown out in the middle of the first dinner service after multiple catastrophic mistakes. The final nail in the coffin was his attempt to serve lamb that looked like it had been attacked by dogs, causing Gordon to have one of his famous “Look! Look! Look!” moments before angrily sending Louie away. His multiple misdeeds and astoundingly poor performance are what make him the worst contestant to ever be featured on the show, and it’s not even close.
