Season 24 of “Hell’s Kitchen” kicked off last night as Gordon Ramsay returned to Foxwoods Resort Casino for a second time at the recently opened restaurant.
Last season of the cooking competition show, which airs on Fox, was the first to be filmed at the Foxwoods location. It was previously announced that seasons 23 and 24 would be filmed in Connecticut. No information has been released regarding the filming location for season 25.
This season is called “Hell’s Kitchen: Battle of the States,” which each chef competing from a different state. At the beginning of the episode, Ramsay told the audience inside of Foxwoods’ Great Cedar Showroom that they had scoured the country to find chefs to compete from each state. However, only the top 20 chefs would be chosen to compete for a chance at being the head chef of Hell’s Kitchen at Foxwoods and a cash prize of $250,000.
Chefs from the following states were ultimately chosen to move forward: Delaware (chef Anaiya Lator), North Carolina (chef Cydni Stickney), Montana (chef Chase Cardoza), Alaska (chef Carlos Walker), Maryland (chef Cat Smith), New Jersey (chef Chris Faison), Colorado (chef Paul Seikel), Rhode Island (chef Cara Marie Hall), Iowa (chef Anthony Leonard), Florida (chef Jada Vidal), California (chef Lisa Rivera), Louisiana (chef Bradley Wildridge), Oregon (chef Alexandra Jones), Texas (chef Henry Johnson), New Hampshire (chef Antonio Wormley), South Carolina (chef Elaina Ruth), New York (chef Maddy Bender), Massachusetts (chef Jayden Canady), Nevada (chef Ellie Parker) and Georgia (chef Jon Boyd).
Though the show is being filmed in the state, there was no Connecticut chef in the top 20.
After introducing all 20 chefs to the audience, Ramsay reveals their first challenge to them — create a signature dish in 45 minutes “to put their state on the map.” With chef James Avery overseeing the blue kitchen (men) and chef Michelle Tribble in the red kitchen (women), the top 20 contestants finished their dishes which were pitted against one another by Ramsay and given a score out of five.
Though most chefs scored a four, four chefs were able to land a perfect score — Vidal, Leonard, Wildridge and Rivera. On the opposite side, Seikel and Walker received the lowest scores, with each earning a two.
At the end of the challenge, the teams had the same number of points, which resulted in Ramsay issuing a tiebreaker by naming the best dish overall. Ramsay ultimately picked Rivera’s Mofongo. For the win, the red team was treated to an afternoon out on a 120-foot yacht alongside Ramsay. Meanwhile, the blue team had to prep the restaurant for the season’s first dinner service — which is where episode two will pick up.
Episode two airs on next Thursday and will stream on Hulu starting Oct. 3.
