Hell’s
Kitchen- Season One
The Basic
Info
Aired- 2005
Winner-
Michael
Runner Up-
Ralph
Sous Chef-
MaryAnn (Red) Scott (Blue)
Maitre d’-
Jean-Philippe
Episodes-
10
Contestants-
12
Season one of Hell’s Kitchen started out very
basic. As basic as you could get in
fact, especially compared to later seasons.
It was almost like a different show, even if you compared it to season
two. The teams weren’t separated by sex,
Ramsey and JP got confessionals, the intro was very different, it was just
different. Also this season was also
weird in the fact that it had 7 males and 5 females instead of the even spilt
that other seasons have. (Discounting the odd numbed contestants of 4 and 6
that is) Also what’s different (but
still something common the first two seasons had) was the general lack of
experience that the overall contestant field had. In total, only three contestants had major
experience in line cooking. Out of those
three two of them were the final two.
It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the first season was pretty
predicable in retrospect.
Michael was no doubt probably the strongest chef in
that season. The first three winners did
have a sense of obvious to them. While
Heather and Rock had glaring faults (Heather was inconsistent and Rock had a
temper) Michael didn’t really have any as big as Heather and Rock. Really the only problem of his was that he
didn’t really have the charisma compared to Ralph, and that is really just a
comparison to Ralph. Ralph had big talk
and usually didn’t have the ability to back it up, which is more of a problem
that Michael had. Also Michael was like
Hell’s Kitchen’s only answer to Richard Hatch.
He was a strategic competitor and written a story, but the problem is
that he broke Hell’s Kitchen. Now you
can’t put up strong people. Now you can’t
sabotage to test contestants at the hot plate because Ramsey stole that ability. Michael tried everything to get ahead, even
though he probably didn’t need to.
Because of today’s format there will be no more Michael type players of
Hell’s Kitchen.
The other 10 contestants all had their little
quirks. Carolann provided a wonderful
quote about inexperience, but ended up the first boot due to not helping out on
her team, despite being competent.
Hell’s Kitchen is a team competition, not individuals. She wasn’t
horrible, and far from the weakest chef in the red team, but you need to show
teamwork. This idea is still present in
these current seasons, the most current being Dan from season 11.
Dewberry was straight comic relief. Usually those people usually last longer past
their expiration date but sometimes those people get out earlier that you’d
expect. Jim from season 6 is an amazing
example of that. Dewberry was
unintentional funny. He also somehow
ended up in the finale to get picked as a team member despite being second off
and not ever working with the two finalists.
He was a horrible cook but extremely entertaining.
Jeff was the first nontraditional eliminated contestant
that appeared on the show. He blew up on
Ramsey and picked a fight with him in the hallway and got hurt. Therefore he got kicked off. He also argued with MaryAnn, and was probably
a driving factor to her leaving the show after season three. In the end, Jeff was pretty insignificant yet
probably affected Hell’s Kitchen and the red kitchen’s Sous Chefs. He doesn’t really talk about the show either. Ha.
Wendy and Mary Ellen I’m going to combine because I don’t have a ton to say about them. Wendy was that one that was in over her head. She was mixed up on water temps and she didn’t know how to prepare meat, yet when she returned for the finale she was a consistent chef and surprised me. Mary Ellen was fundamentally the opposite. She was consistent until her last service. Shockingly she was kept over the less consistent and abrasive Andrew. She also strangely didn’t come back at the finale. It’s not unheard of people not showing up to the finale (Only seasons 3 and 8 had no one bailing on the finalists.) but it is a little odd that three people didn’t show. Jeff is a bit understandable, but not Mary Ellen.
Chris is probably one of the most important eliminated contestants
for two reasons. Chris was experienced
but never lived up to his own hype, and Ramsey couldn’t change the
nominations. Chris arguably wasn’t the
worst that night, but Michael wanted to “fuck shit up” to put it lightly. He
was up against Elsie that night, someone on the other end of the spectrum. Also Chris is the other person that bailed on
the finalist with Mary Ellen. How odd.
Andrew was kinda a hook of some sorts. He was the bad tempered butt monkey of the
blue team. Literally no one respected
him in that place. If Jeff was MaryAnn’s
person that showed that she was a badass, Andrew was Sous Chef Scott. He tried to cheat a blue team punishment so
Scott laid into him. However he grew. He canned his attitude which probably saved
him over Mary Ellen. However his bad
attitude and bad ability got the best of him and just missed the black jackets.
Jimmy is the first person to individually win a
challenge. He is also the first person
to get kicked off the black jackets. He
was saved by never getting picked to be eliminated. Had Elsie or Michael put him up he’d been
gone a long time ago. He never gave up
either. The same kinda niche of
contestant has shown up now and again, but Jimmy was the first.
I would argue that in simple terms Elsie is what the
show needed to be popular. Elsie was the
relatable older kickass woman that had no experience what so ever yet made it
all the way to fourth place. She sold
Hell’s Kitchen. It was a sad day in Hell’s
Kitchen when she left, however it was necessary. It was pretty eww how she left the show. But I don’t think you’ll ever find a Hell’s
Kitchen fan that didn’t love Elsie. Add in the fact that she took in the high
road instead of rating out the other competitors about them not give them their
support for her, she was a very nice lady.
You don’t find that many nice people in Hell’s Kitchen and most of them
don’t last that long. Really the only
other “nice person” that made it as far as she did was Jen of season 3.
Jessica, in my opinion, kinda got lost in the fold a
little. I rarely see talk about her, but
she’s a pretty underrated character. Her
storyline in the beginning was as gold as it can get in the earlier seasons of
Hell’s Kitchen. She put up her best
friend Mary Ellen and she left right after her other best friend, Wendy,
left. She grew and turned into this
badass but her lack in the line is really what kept her out of the final
two. She was Ralph’s best friend, and a
lot of focus was put on that and the fact that she was Michael’s first choice
just to fuck with him.
In summary- Yes season one was a bit too predictable,
but it’s the first season. There was so
many things that they needed to work out.
Season two was really the more typical season of Hell’s Kitchen. This season was more of the ten season introduction
to everything Hell’s Kitchen brought to us.
It ran us by the eliminations, the restaurant itself. Without this season we would be lost.
Later this week- The first lesbian winner, the first
Hell’s Kitchen “villain”, and Ramsey’s Hard on.
That’s right, we're talking about season two.
~Heather Out~
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