Country of origin United States Original network Fox | No. of episodes 15 | |
Original release September 22 (2010-09-22) – December 15, 2010 (2010-12-15) | ||
The eighth season of Hell's Kitchen, an American reality competition television series starring Gordon Ramsay, premiered on the Fox Network on September 22, 2010, and continued until December 15, 2010. Sous Chef Nona Sivley won the competition, earning a head chef position at the L.A. Market restaurant at the JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live in Los Angeles, as well as an opportunity to be a spokesperson for Rosemount Estate Wines.
Contents
Sabrina Brimhall holds the record for the worst nomination record of any black jacket chef on the show. Being nominated every time she was eligible for nomination she beats Runner-Up of season 2 Virginia Dambeck with 1 more nomination compared Virginia's 6.
Format
The first half of each episode consists of a team challenge, in which the winning side gets a reward of some sort of leisure activity, while the losing side has to clean up and prepare both kitchens, as well as some activity that is not so pleasant. Afterwards, the teams compete in executing a dinner service, during which Ramsay can impose additional punishments or kick chefs out of the kitchen. The losing team(s) nominates chefs to be considered for elimination. Ramsay can also nominate chefs, and ultimately sends a chef home. At six chefs left, the teams merge to one, and the chefs compete as individuals.
Staff
Gordon Ramsay returned to the series as the head chef, as well as sous chefs Scott Leibfried and Andi van Willigan. James Lukanik served as the maître d', replacing Jean-Philippe Susilovic, who had been serving as a restaurant director at Ramsay's restaurant in London, Petrus. Seasons 7 and 8 were taped a year apart, resulting in other staff changes.
Broadcast
Hell's Kitchen was planned to air weekly from September to December 2010. However, due to Fox's televising of the Major League Baseball playoffs and the World Series in October and November, the show was broadcast with double episodes from September 22 until October 13 in addition to double episodes on November 10 and single episodes from November 17 until the finale on December 15. This is the first time that the series took more than a week off while the competition was in progress. Cablevision did not carry Fox during the first sixteen days of the hiatus due to a carriage dispute.
Opening sequence
Unlike the previous intros, this is the first that doesn't take place in a kitchen. The opening sequence is inspired by the tale Gulliver's Travels where the chefs are shown tying up a giant Ramsay while launching various food-related attacks on him.
Contestants
16 chefs competed in Season 8. Ages shown are at the start of competition.
Contestant progress
Epilogue
Nona Sivley worked as the head chef of LA Market since her win in December 2010. Her menu in the season finale service was integrated into the LA Market menu. She reappeared in the ninth season when the team challenge winners visit LA Market as a reward. She also appeared in Season 11 where she & four others champions being Rock Harper (Season 3), Christina Machamer (Season 4), Dave Levey (Season 6) & Paul Niedermann (Season 9) competed against that season's final five chefs. In November 2013, she joined Simon to oversee Pork & Beans, a restaurant in Las Vegas.
Other chefs have made appearances in later Hell's Kitchen episodes. Jillian and Trev appeared in Season 9 where they competed against that season's five chefs. Russell appeared in Season 10 to compete against that season's six chefs.
Trev competed in Food Network's "Cutthroat Kitchen"'s Superhero special, but was eliminated in round 2.