Country of origin United States Original network Fox | No. of episodes 16 | |
Original release September 23, 2016 (2016-09-23) – February 2, 2017 (2017-02-02) | ||
The sixteenth season of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on September 23, 2016 on Fox. Event Chef Kimberly-Ann "Ryan" Ryan from Traverse City, Michigan won the competition and a head chef position at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar at The Venetian Las Vegas. In addition to Gordon Ramsay, who returned as host/head chef, Marino Monferrato and Aaron Mitrano returned as maitre d' and blue kitchen sous chef respectively while Andi van Willigan-Cutspec resumed her role as sous chef for the red team after Season 10 winner Christina Wilson filled in for her in the previous season while she got married. This was also the first season since Season 13 to take a hiatus due to Fox's coverage of the 2016 World Series in addition to the holiday breaks. The remaining episodes of the season were moved to Thursday nights on January 5, 2017 as part of the network's midseason schedule.
Contents
This season's red team set a new record for the most number of outright dinner service wins by a team in a single Hell's Kitchen season (discounting season finales) with eight, surpassing the Season 14 blue team's record of six. Also, this season's blue team broke Season 10's blue team and Season 14's red team for the record of being kicked out of service, with seven ejections (episodes one, two, four, five, eight, nine, and ten). This marks the third season in a row and third season overall where the final three chefs are all female. This is the first time the final three chefs all made it to the top three without any previous nominations. This is the first time since season 9 where black jacket chefs were kicked out of service. This is also the fifth season where the finale has two female chefs (following seasons two, eleven, fourteen, and fifteen). This is also the fourth season in a row to have a female winner. This is also the second season in a row, and third season overall, where no chef withdrew from the competition; it is also the second season since Season 10 where no chef was eliminated mid-service. This season is the seventh in a row where the finalist in the blue kitchen wins in a same gender final (following 6, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 15).
Opening sequence
A slow motion sequence features the chefs causing multiple accidents in the kitchen.
Chefs
Eighteen chefs compete in season 16.