Season 12 of the American competitive

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series '' Hell's Kitchen'' premiered on March 13, 2014 on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a tot ...

returned as the head chef as well as Andi Van Willigan and James Avery as the red team's and blue team's sous chefs respectively.

Jean-Philippe Susilovic Jean-Philippe Susilovic (born November 26 1975), often referred to simply as Jean-Philippe or JP, is a Belgian television personality and restaurant director. He is best known for his appearances as the ''maître d'hôtel'' on the American version ...

also returned as the

maître d' ''Maître'' (spelled ''Maitre'' according to post-1990 spelling rules) is a commonly used honorific for lawyers, judicial officers and notaries in France, Belgium, Switzerland and French-speaking parts of Canada. It is often written in its abbrev ...

. This was the first season to have two chefs quit. This season also for the first time to feature "Cook For Your Life" challenge, which would be featured on subsequent seasons. Instead of the dinner service, the challenge was added in the middle of the season, which tested one chef of each team based on an interview of each team by Ramsay. The contestant that failed the challenge would be eliminated. Scott Commings won this season and received a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill in

Caesars Palace Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks. Caesars P ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, a prize retained for the previous season. Scott holds the record for the most nominations held by a winner (seven times), breaking

Christina Machamer Christina Machamer (born March 13, 1982) is an American chef who won in the fourth season of Fox Network's reality cooking show ''Hell's Kitchen''.

's record (season 4) of five nominations. This is the last season to date to feature 20 contestants, and for the second time set a record with two contestants choosing to leave the competition after

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

(with the difference that the two contestants from Season 5 chose to leave the competition due to medical reason).

Chefs

Twenty chefs competed in season 12. Jason Zepaltas previously competed in

season 9 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pola ...

but withdrew before the first dinner service after falling ill during prep. He is the second chef to have competed in two seasons, after Robert Hesse (seasons 5 and 6), and Zepaltas was the first chef until the All-Star season to present two signature dishes to Ramsay. ;Notes

Contestant progress

Episodes

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hell's Kitchen (American season 12) Hell's Kitchen (American TV series) 2014 American television seasons