Hell's Kitchen/What an Idiot!

Given the nature of the show, Hell's Kitchen is bound to have a few of its contestants make some stupid, or even embarrassing mistakes. Made even more disastrous considering these are meant to be professionals.

In General
Each season kicks off with a Signature Dish challenge, where Gordon wants to see these aspiring chefs "on a plate".


 * You'd think: They would try to use fresh ingredients, since Gordon Ramsay is not a fan of using pre-made ingredients in a professional environment.
 * Instead: You will get a few who do use pre-made ingredients, and they will proceed to be chewed out by the chef for it.
 * You'd also think: that these chefs would also take full advantage of the 45 minutes they are given.
 * Instead: some of them will make something that will take 20-30 minutes at most, and in one instance, 3 minutes. These contestants often get labelled as The Ditz for that season.

As Gordon Ramsay is the host, and thus the head chef in Hell's Kitchen...


 * You'd think: if a chef cocks up on a dish or an order, they would at least apologies for their errors, reply with "Yes chef!" and work to correct their mistake.
 * Instead: some of them will try to argue with Chef Ramsay, insisting they are in the right. These contestants often earn themselves a Scrappy status from fans of the show as a result, and the ire of their teammates, too.

Season 1
After losing the challenge in one of the later episodes, the blue team loses the challenge, and are punished by having a code lock on their storeroom door, which they have to use each time they want ingredients.


 * You'd think: that at least one member of the blue team would memorise the code on hand, at have them open the door for their teammates each time they go to the storeroom.
 * Instead: while Ralph was able to memorise the code, Andrew decides to try and cheat out of his punishment by putting a layer of tape over the lock.
 * Unfortunately: Sous Chef Scott catches him in the act, and promptly tears him a new one. Scott punishes the blue team further by limiting them to getting one ingredient from the storeroom each time they visit.

Season 3
During the third dinner service, two of the women display poor kitchen practises; Jen pulls spaghetti out from the trash and tries to recook it, while Joanna almost serves rotten crab meat without realising it.


 * You'd think: Both of them would own up to their mistakes.
 * Instead: Jen openly admitting that she was wrong to reuse trashed food, but Joanna didn't own up to using rancid crab. She even tried to rationalise Jen's mistake as the reason why she should go home. Chef Ramsay quickly points out that her mistake was far worse than Jen's.
 * As a result: Joanna is eliminated that night, and Jen is given a warning.

In the first black jackets service, Josh hastily cooks 5 pans of risotto before the restaurant has even opened. As we all know, Ramsay gets angry when food is cooked ahead of time.


 * You'd think: that Josh would take this to heart, and not cook food ahead of the order coming through. Since his now has a black jacket, he is now under more intense scrutiny than before, so he ought to avoid giving Ramsay reason to eliminate him. In addition, Josh cannot afford to have another terrible service, since he has not had a service all season.
 * Instead: Josh continues cooking dishes ahead of time (now spaghetti), and does so multiple times despite Ramsay telling him not to, pushing the chef's patience almost to the breaking point.
 * As a Result: Josh becomes the first contestant to be eliminated in the middle of service after one of his risottos came back undercooked.

Season 5
During the double steak night service, each team takes turns cooking and serving. Since the blue team won the preceding challenge, they had the choice whether they cooked first, or serve. They chose to cook first, and as a service begins, Ramsay tell's Ben: "Desserts, pick up!"


 * You'd think: Ben would interpret this as "Man the dessert station!", for the end of the service when desserts are pushed out. If Ben wasn't sure what Ramsay meant by this, he could ask. He'd get chewed out for it, but he would at least know for sure.
 * Instead: Ben interprets this call as "Bring the desserts!", resulting in him making a chocolate brownie and a sundae, and bringing them to the pass almost as soon as the service begins. Even Seth pointed out how comically stupid this move was.
 * As a result: Ben was under Gordon's watchful eyes for the majority of his stay in Hell's Kitchen, and was frequently picked on for his mistakes. That night, the blue team predictably lost that service.
 * The Kicker: The blue team never even reached the dessert phase off their service.

In the final team service, Carol decides to make gratin dauphinois, a potato dish in which consists of thinly sliced potatoes baked in milk or cream. However, she makes a complete pig's ear of them by cooking them when the order came in, instead of cooking them during pre-service prep. This results in them requiring 10 minutes to finish, which is far too long to keep a customer waiting.


 * You'd think: that Carol would simply scrap her idea and come up with an alternative potato dish instead.
 * Instead: she desperately tries to save her potatoes by pouring more cream over them, only to caught by Ramsay. As Andrea summed it up: "There was no saving those potatoes. I mean they looked like shit, they looked like fucking shit... awful!"
 * As a Result: Although the red team won service that night, Carol was eliminated later that night, and became the first contestant to be eliminated in such a fashion.

In the first black jacket service, Ben's chicken special is on the menu, but Giovanni makes an absolute mess of one portion, resulting in Ramsay infamously addressing the latter as "dickface".


 * You'd think: Giovanni would simply admit his mistake, apologise to Ben for fucking up his special, and working to correct the problem. Also, Ramsay's insults are never on a personal level, and Giovanni should remember this after seeing the amount of shit Ben got throughout the season.
 * Instead: Giovanni unwisely answers back to Ramsay by replying: "Yeah. But I'm not "dickface", chef!" Cue a mass Oh Crap reactions from Paula and Danny as Chef Ramsay storms right up to Gio and proceeds to scream in his face for talking back to him.
 * As a Result: Giovanni is eliminated that night for his outburst.

Season 6
During the signature dish challenge, Joseph serves undercooked Brussels Sprouts to Ramsay, who then asks him to taste it. During the second elimination, Joseph is asked to give the names of two nominees from the blue team, and why. For the Welcome Home Party challenge, the staff sergeant's wife relays her husband's likes and dislikes to Robert and Suzanne. Also, during the actual service that night, Tek was having some real issues on the grill.
 * You'd think: That Joseph just takes a bite of his own cooking without issue.
 * Instead: He demands that Ramsay gives him a fork, then argues with him over something as mundane as an undercooked vegetable.
 * You'd think: Joseph would simply name one and why, then the second, as everyone else before and after him has.
 * Instead: He tells Ramsay that the nominees could speak for themselves, prompting the chef to call him a smartass.
 * You'd then think: Joseph would take the hint and call the nominees out properly.
 * Instead: He calls out their names, but doesn't give proper reasons for it. This leads into a heated argument between Joseph and Ramsay, with Robert and Suzanne attempting to get him to knock it off.
 * You'd finally expect: Joseph to just calm down and apologise.
 * Instead: Joseph throws his jacket off and storms right up to Ramsay and threatens to beat him up.
 * As a Result: Ramsay finally has enough of Joseph's horrific attitude and orders him to leave.
 * You'd think: That both contestants would listen carefully to what the sergeant's wife has to say.
 * Instead: Robert relays all the necessary info (soul food, grilled lobster, baked potato, etc.) to his team, but Suzanne doesn't, opting to make dishes she wanted to make, even rejecting Tennile's idea for a jumbalaya sauce.
 * As a result: The red team lost the challenge 2-1.
 * You'd think: That Tek would realise that the grill in the kitchen works differently to how it works at home.
 * You'd also think: Tek would listen to Ariel and Tennile, who were telling her that the grill's purpose is to just add sear marks, and the meat has to be cooked in the oven.
 * Instead: Tek blows off her teammates, and continues to treat the grill like the one at home. The steaks come out charred on the outside, but blue in the middle.
 * To add insult to injury: Her problems on the grill hold up the red team so much that the blue team had to come in and help them serve all of their entrees.
 * As a Result: Tek was eliminated that night.