Hell’s Kitchen season 18 saw another round of culinary hopefuls battle it out to gain the respect of chef Gordon Ramsay – here’s a recap of the season finale plus who was named winner. Fox’s long-running cooking competition-cum-reality show has been entertaining viewers since its first season aired back in 2005. Helmed, hosted and judged by notoriously temperamental British chef Gordon Ramsay, Hell’s Kitchen sees chefs from across the USA come together to compete for a job as head chef at a top restaurant.
The eighteenth season was officially titled Hell’s Kitchen: Rookies Vs. Veterans and featured eight brand-new contestants competing against eight returning veterans who had competed on earlier seasons but hadn’t won. Each episode the chefs faced a series of typical Hell’s Kitchen tasks including team challenges - like creating dishes around a particular ingredient - and the dinner service, in which contestants cooked for dining rooms packed with people including celebrity guests like The Goldbergs star Hayley Orrantia and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz.
By the penultimate episode of Hell’s Kitchen season 18, just two contestants remained in the competition - rookie contestant Mia Castro, a private chef from Miami Beach, Florida, and veteran contestant Ariel Contreras-Fox, a chef de cuisine from Brooklyn, New York who first competed on Hell’s Kitchen season 6. The pre-finale episode gave the two chefs the opportunity to test out the menus they would serve in the final dinner service and choose which eliminated season 18 contestants would be on their team. Mia’s team consisted of Roe DiLeo, Trev McGrath, Jose DeJesus and Heather Williams and Ariel ended up with Kanae Houston, Bret Hauser, Chris Motto and Scotley Innis on her team.
In the Hell’s Kitchen grand finale, Mia served a Latin inspired menu that included a Peruvian-style ceviche and mofongo with fried plantains while Ariel’s menu was modern Latin with an Asian twist, which featured dishes like Veracruz-style mackerel and albondigas dumpling soup. During the final dinner service, the two chefs and their teams served their dishes to a dining room packed with their own family members and celebrity diners that included Jane The Virgin star Yael Grobglas and J.B. Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Bar a few minor hiccups, both Ariel and Mia’s menus went down a storm with diners, but in the end, it was Ariel who was crowned the winner of Hell’s Kitchen season 18 and nabbed the coveted grand prize of $250,000 and an executive chef position at Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
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