Hell's Kitchen

This season opens with twenty aspiring chefs presenting signature dishes in Las Vegas, where they split into two teams and attempt to impress Chef Ramsay.

In the second part of the season opener, the twenty contestants settle into their dorms and prepare their first dinner service, which goes poorly with incomplete and undercooked dishes being served.

The remaining contestants participate in a physical challenge. Each team has five minutes to climb a wall and retrieve as many lobsters as possible.

The two teams must create a healthy meal for Olympians Maurice Greene, Natalie Coughlin and Danell Leyva after a 3,000m run. The winners jet off to California's Temecula Valley Wine Country.

Chef Ramsay orders the remaining contestants to identify the particular protein used in five meat dishes. The fastest team to guess all five proteins wins a day at the beach in Malibu.

Dinner service comes to a halt when Jean-Philippe requests help in the dining room. When one contestant from each team helps the wait staff, Ramsay discovers that both draw illegible checks.

Chef Ramsay challenges the remaining contestants to create six stunning Chinese dishes, which will then be judged by the renowned chef Martin Yan.

For the team challenge, the remaining contestants visit an animal pen to choose a form of protein to cook with. During the dinner service, the budding chefs must impress Chef Ramsay's family as well.

The aspiring chefs must cut a steak, cook it to medium-rare and then serve it with a spice rub or sauce of their own making. The winners spend the afternoon lounging around a pool.

Hosting its first quinceañera, Hell's Kitchen throws a party fit for a princess. Each team must make a five course tasting menu based on the guest of honor's preferences.

Representatives from both teams have thirty seconds to gather as many slips of paper as they can while in a wind chamber. The teams must cook five dishes based on the ingredients listed on the slips.

Chef Ramsay asks the teams to create their own menus for a dinner service that features Ian Ziering ("Beverly Hills, 90210") and Nikki SooHoo ("The Lovely Bones") as special guests.

The teams must create an ethnic dish in 45 minutes including a protein of their choice. The winners go on a shopping spree at a boutique and receive a set of copper-clad cookware.

The remaining chefs participate in a challenge that tests their skills at identifying foods merely by touch. The winners eat seafood at Malibu's Nobu restaurant.

Chef Ramsay rewards the chef who has made the greatest stride in the competition with immunity from elimination during the next dinner service, in which the contestants try to impress the judges.

Chef Ramsay tests the remaining contestants' abilities to communicate with one another in a three-entrée relay race. The winners tour LA by helicopter and visit the King Gillette Ranch.

Each chef has 45 minutes to use a pressure cooker to make a meal using one of five cheap cuts of meat — each hidden in a pressure cooker — and fashion the dish as a five-star entrée.

Chef Ramsay devises a team of former "Hell's Kitchen" winners to challenge the remaining contestants. The two teams must wow Chef Ramsay with their signature dishes.

The remaining four contestants split into two teams. Each team has thirty minutes to replicate the sample dish using only taste, touch and sight.

The final two chefs must prepare two appetizers and three entrées to present to a panel of respected judges. The winner gets first pick in a team of chefs eliminated from the competition.

In the season finale, the two chefs and their respective teams participate in a final dinner service that will determine this season's winner.