Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 Winner

Trev and Jillian were eliminated in Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 Episode 14, which brings us down to a final two of Russell and Nona.

They take a helicopter ride to the JW Marriott for the final challenge. Ramsay tells them to jump, so they ask how high, but he’s just kidding. They take the stairs down, rather than using the parachutes he provided. Good thing he broke the news because Nona was practically off the roof already.

Each of them will have one hour to cook their dishes, and then they will be judged by people from LA who apparently know about food.

The first round is soup. Nona makes potato soup with bacon, cheddar, and chives. Russell has cooked cauliflower soup. Obviously, bacon beats cauliflower. Nona gets the point.

Salad is next. Nona has made beet salad. Doesn’t sound very appealing. Russell made burrata and prosciutto salad. Russell gets the point to make it a tie.

Next up is pasta. Nona’s made pan-seared chicken breast over orecchiette, while Russell has gargenelli with sea scallops. Nona takes a 2-1 lead.

Fish is the fourth dish. Russell serves pan-seared arctic char, while Nona has made pan-seared salmon. It’s tied at 2-2.

The tiebreaker is the meat, to be judged by Kerry Simon of LA Market. Nona cooked pan-seared ribeye; Russell cooked grilled veal tender. Russell wins the challenge.

Eight chefs have returned, some more competent than others. As the challenge winner, Russell picks first.

Russell: Jillian, Vinny, Sabrina, Rob
Nona: Gail, Melissa, Trev, Boris

Jillian’s happy to be picked first, the right choice seeing as she should be one of the final two. Vinny is sick to have been picked by Russell. Sabrina’s happy to have not been picked last, which she shouldn’t have been because she just had difficulty with other people being hostile, not her cooking. Trev is looking forward to being able to help knock Russell to the floor.

Nona considers Boris her biggest problem, which will lead her to keep her eye on him and talk down to him as needed. Russell gives Vinny attitude, telling him to go on the other team if he really wants to do so. Go ahead. Do it. This idiot apparently can’t realize he needs you, not the other way around. This is exactly why Russell should not be a finalist. He just can’t work with people, always believing he’s the only one that matters.

Unfortunately, Vinny doesn’t plan to screw over Russell, although his first dish gets rejected. Ramsay tells him if he talked to him like that, he’d be history. Okay. First, he already is history. Second, he doesn’t respect Russell, nor is Russell attempting to earn any respect. Anyway, Vinny’s next scallops are good.

Trev’s salad is overdressed, but his second attempt is also good.

Now they can move to entrees. But first, why is Sabrina stewing beef? Then her first dish is undercooked. That said, Russell switches Sabrina to fish and Vinny to beef. This switch was necessary, or so Russell tells us, although he doesn’t have much confidence in Vinny, who he says completely messed up the scallops (that one time). The switch works.

Boris is on fish. He doesn’t know how long to cook it, though. After being told how long to cook it, he still doesn’t know. Trev warns him that he’ll take over if it happens again. Raw for a third time. So Trev wants to take over, which just leads to an argument. Boris’ fourth attempt is acceptable.

Russell has set a new goal. He doesn’t just want to win. He wants to finish as quickly as possible, whether it’s smart to push his staff that much or not. This is working to get food pushed out rapidly… and then rapidly returned.

Nona’s next dish is a VIP, at least as far as she’s concerned. Melissa delivers raw meat for the meal that’s for Nona’s husband.

Rob runs out of tomato water, so Russell tells Jillian to come over here and cook because Rob can’t. This causes a shoving match between Rob and Russell.

After reviewing the customer comment cards, Ramsay has made his decision. The Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 winner is Nona Sivley. Not a big surprise. Although it could certainly be argued that Russell was the best chef, his inability to get over his own ego caused him to be this season’s biggest ass. Not one to accept defeat gracefully, he blames his team for the loss, warning them he will blackball them from working again.