What's Cooking On The 21st Season of Hell's Kitchen, Debuting September 29th on Fox
a write-up that has nothing at all to do with DVDs, by Dave Lambert
Seasons 1 through 14 of Hell’s Kitchen (USA) have been released on DVD in North America, between 2008 and 2016. Since then no DVD (or Blu-ray Disc) release of the popular show has been offered. Today, I’m not talking about TV-on-DVD/BD releases. In this special write-up, I’m telling my fellow Hell’s Kitchen fans what to expect from the upcoming Season 21!
All of you, come HERE! For twenty seasons now, Gordon Ramsay has brought the heat to Fox with Hell's Kitchen, a job interview masquerading as a reality TV show/cooking contest. For almost a month, a group of aspiring professional chefs sleep in the dormitories connected a studio-turned-restaurant, away from friends and family, and focus on cooking their way to the prize. That prize is a quarter of a million dollars (described as their "salary"), and the opportunity to become a lead chef in a specific restaurant. The restaurant usually varies from season to season (although a couple of the prize restaurants have been repeated a few times). Often, the prize restaurants are owned by Ramsay himself. Each "day" of the competition is depicted as a separate weekly episode, so each season of the show usually lasts anywhere from 15-20 weeks.
The first season of Hell’s Kitchen (only 11 episodes) broke up the entrants into a Red Team and a Blue Team…but it was co-ed that first time! Men and women were on the same team right from the first of the challenges. Beginning with the second season, however, Ramsay sorted out the teams into men (blue) vs women (red) in the debut episode, and did that for each season thereafter. Of course, later in each of those seasons he would begin to mix the genders up, as he moved members around to keep the team numbers (roughly) even.
Season 17 of HK had a theme: "All Stars," which exclusively featured contestants who had been on Hell's Kitchen before (but didn't win). Then, for Season 18, they switched it up a bit with "Rookies vs Veterans": new-to-Hell's-Kitchen entrants (the rookies) would be on the red team, and the blue team would consist of previous Hell's Kitchen contestants (the veterans). Spoiler alert: as the season gets to a quarter of the way through, the teams go back to being "the battle of the sexes," moving it once more to men’s team vs women’s team. In Season 19, the theme was "Las Vegas," but the format of the show went back to the traditional one. For the 20th Season, the new theme was "Young Guns." It was the traditional Hell's Kitchen format again, but this time all the entrants were aged 24 or younger!
On September 29th, Fox will debut Hell's Kitchen Season 21: Battle of the Ages. The Red Team will be made up of 20-somethings who are looking to prove themselves, while the Blue Team consists of seasoned chefs in their 40s. These episodes were shot in the early months of 2022, back-to-back with Season 22, with production of both seasons wrapping in the first week of March. During production, the cast and crew - and even dinner guests! - rigorously adhered to COVID procedures and testing.
When the show debuted in 2005, the first pair of seasons were shot in an old "evening news" studio in Hollywood. For Season 3 it moved to Century Studios in Los Angeles. Seasons 4-18 were shot in a former studio back lot in Culver City (previously used, among other things, for the US Marine Corps camp seen in Gomer Pyle). The 19th and 20th Seasons, shot back-to-back before the pandemic began, were produced a block off the Las Vegas main strip in Nevada, at Caesars Entertainment Studios (and just a few blocks away from the actual restaurant based on the show, Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen, which opened January 2018 in front of Caesars Palace Las Vegas on the strip). For the new Season 21 (and for Season 22, which is "in the can"…as we said, both seasons were shot one after the other), filming went back to California, and took place in the old IKEA location in Burbank. Plans for shooting future seasons have not been solidified, but Ramsay has said it will not be in the actual Hell's Kitchen restaurants: they are far too busy with paying customers to be interrupted by filming. Besides, the actual restaurants don't have any dorms for the contestants to sleep in!
Chef Gordon Ramsay, who currently holds 7 Michelin stars worldwide and either owns or operates more than 60 restaurants around the globe, continues to preside over the Hell's Kitchen TV show as both Host and as co-executive producer. Chef Christina Wilson, who won the show's 10th Season and is currently the Vice President of Culinary for the Gordon Ramsay North America organization, returns as Sous Chef of the Red Team. Chef Jason "Jay" Santos, who was the runner-up for Season 7 and currently owns four restaurants in and around Boston, as well as occasionally appearing on the Bar Rescue television show as a culinary expert, returns again to Hell's Kitchen as the Sous Chef of the Blue Team. Marino Monferrato is back in the HK dining room as Maître D'; when he's not there he keeps busy in California wine country as the Vice President of Hospitality Operations for Daou Vineyards.
While the Fox TV Network hasn't officially announced the names of the entrants for Hell's Kitchen Season 21: Battle of the Ages, the teaser trailer announcing the new season's premiere date shows a few names: Tara (age 41), Billy (age 40), Dafne (age 29), Alyssa (age 23), Mindy (age 42), and Charlene (age 40). During one close-up, you can also see the name Alejandro on one chef jacket. Other names which have leaked out include Vlad and Cheyenne (but take those with a grain of salt for now). The trailer also prominently shows a VIP dining guest: musician/actor Gene Simmons!
After Gordon Ramsay puts these contestants through hell in the toughest job interview on television, what will the prize be for the winner? Besides the regular $250,000 money award, the Season 21: Battle of the Ages winner will reportedly be offered the Head Chef position at the upcoming Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen location at Caesars Atlantic City, on the boardwalk in the famous New Jersey city (and that prize also explains the rolling dice in one of Fox’s promos for Season 21). This restaurant location will be the fifth worldwide site for Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen. The original site opened in Las Vegas during the first month of 2018, followed in November of that year by one located on Bluewaters Island at Dubai (the only location of GRHK to date that’s not in the USA). In August 2019 a location opened in Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada side of the street which serves as the border between it and California. Just weeks ago from this writing, on August 12th, the first Hell's Kitchen restaurant inside California itself opened up, at a SoCal town called Funner (home of the Rincon band of Native Americans): it’s about a 70 minute drive northeast of the city of San Diego. The Atlantic City restaurant hasn't had an official opening date announced yet, but the OpenTable app seems to be accepting reservations for Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen at Caesars Atlantic City, showing seating begins on September 21st...just a week and a day before the new season debuts on Fox!
More locations of Hell's Kitchen restaurants are also in the works: Washington D.C.'s wharf-side spot is now staffing up for a November 2022 launch. Ramsay himself has announced on social media that Miami will be next after that, with Chicago to follow. Both of those two ought to be open no later than the end of the first quarter of 2023. Since the at-home audience of Hell's Kitchen television viewers are highly unlikely to ever get on the show to dine on Gordon Ramsay's signature dishes at the studio-set-turned-dining-room, the spread of so many Hell's Kitchen restaurants allows fans to sample most of the fare they covet: pan seared scallops or lobster risotto appetizers, Beef Wellington or filet mignon or crispy-skin salmon entrees, and his famous sticky toffee pudding as a dessert. By the way: vegans or vegetarians can confidently visit there, too, as every Hell's Kitchen restaurant location has menus dedicated to those diners. When an interviewer once asked him, "How will dining at Hell’s Kitchen be different from what people see on the TV show?," Ramsay replied, "To start, you’re guaranteed to get fed!"
For the moment, though, we can chow down on the tasty drama that is going to be the 21st Season of Hell's Kitchen. It debuts on Fox in less than a month, on Thursday September 29th. Time will be 8PM Eastern (check your local listings). If you can't catch it during the broadcast, then you can stream it on Hulu the following day. The new episodes of Season 21 are expected to keep running into January or February (depending on various scheduling decisions by Fox along the way). So we ought to know who the winner is sometime in early 2023. Can you fight back for that long? Good. Now…back on your stations!