Hell’s Kitchen Finale Coverage: Best of the Best Face-Off

It’s time for the “Hell’s Kitchen Season 12” finale. Two of the best chefs in this show’s history faced each other to cap off another dramatic season in glorious fashion.

After Jason and Scott were announced as the finalists, Ramsay told them they’d spend a nice time out in a suite at the “Four Seasons Hotel.” Both knew this was nice and all, but they had to work on their menus for final cooking competition. This was very smart on both of them.

The surprises just kept coming. First it was breakfast with their families. Ramsay then gave head chef jackets wrapped in gold wrapping paper to both and a night out at a boxing event. Of course, anyone who has watched this show long enough will know that these night outs for the final two are cooking challenges. In fact, the boxing event looked really phony. It was cool that both chefs were announced as boxers would with a ring announcer. Jason even had a ring name (”The Viking”)

One amazing thing about this season’s final challenge was that the kitchens were right on top of the walkway ramp. They had one hour to make a cold appetizer, a hot appetizer, a chicken entrée, a seafood entrée and a beef filet.

The way this challenge worked was a guest judge would come out and judge each dish on a scale of 1-10. The chef with the highest score after five rounds one. To judge the cold app was head chef/owner of “Ink” Michael Voltaggio. He gave Scott a nine and Jason eight. Hot apps was judged by the owner of “Ford’s Filling Station” Ben Ford. Both got an eight. The other judges were head chef/owner of “Bud” Neal Fraser for the chicken entrée (gave both an eight) and the owner of “Hatfield’s” Quinn Hatfield judged the fish entrée (Scott eight. Jason nine.)

It was tied for the final dish (bee filet). The judge was executive chef of “Comme Ca” David Myers. Scott got a nine and Jason an eight, giving Scott the win by one point. This had to have been the closest a final challenge has ever gotten. That says a lot about both chefs.

Of course, this was the part where both chefs had to choose their teammates for the final dinner service. As usual, the teammates were the chefs who got eliminated. Scott chose Chris, Ralph, Rochelle, Kashia and Jessica. Jason chose Anton, Melanie, Gabriel, Bev and Sandra.

Back at “Hell’s Kitchen” Jason was all over the place telling his brigade his menu. He was yelling “boom” and “yeah” a lot. Scott on the other hand was droning and boring. Those are nice little differences for the final two: A loudmouth and Ben Stein.

The final dinner service for both kitchens went well despite some drawbacks.

In Scott’s kitchen Chris started with slightly undercooked scallops. Kashia tried to put up entrees before garnish was ready, but Scott put a stop to that. Ramsay even said ‘not tonight.” Later, Jessica would send up garnish that she didn’t mix and potatoes that weren’t crispy. Scott even threw Jessica out. This had to be the first time a chef was kicked out at the last service.

In Jason’s kitchen Sandra was the biggest problem. Sandra wanted to put up reheated crab cakes. Ramsay had to tell her to put up fresh ones. Jason was even in her face saying “you want to go home?” The only other problem was Gabriel overcooking two filets.

With that it was time for Ramsay to choose who he thought won this season. After a lot of nail-biting minutes, Ramsay finally called Scott and Jason to where we see the winner. They usual manner was to have both chefs go in front of two doors and open them at the count of three. The chef whose door opens wins “Hell’s Kitchen.” This year’s winner was Scott.

This was one of the most amazing wins in “Hell’s Kitchen” history. Here’s a contestant who started off not so well and was almost eliminated a few times to winning it all. This year’s final was one of the toughest to choose. Both Scott and Jason had plenty to offer and had a high chance to win. Truthfully, it was nice that Scott won.

This season was actually pretty good. In fact, it was one of the best. The drama was kept to a minimum, the multi part episodes were few and the chefs were tolerable. “Hell’s Bitches” was absent this year which is a relief because that gimmick gets old quickly.

The biggest surprise has to be Joy not being in the final. She had all the trappings of being a finalist and she decided to walk away. Maybe she’ll return another season and win it all?