These Are The Worst Dishes To Ever Come Out Of Hell's Kitchen

Your excitement is tangible. Why? Because you have dinner guests coming over and absolutely cannot wait to dazzle them with a slew of new dishes. Dinner parties aren't anything new to you. In fact, you take every opportunity you can to tantalize taste buds and leave hungry friends and family members in awe of your culinary prowess. But, tonight's different. You splurged on some very special ingredients to crank the night up from 10 to 11. You're ready to rock when suddenly a wrench is hurled into your meticulously laid plans. One of your guests is bringing a good friend along. That friend just happens to be a Michelin-rated chef who just can't wait to see what you have in store. Cue nauseating anxiety.

That's a pretty terrifying situation, huh? Well, that's exactly how the contestants on Hell's Kitchen must feel every time they approach the grimacing face of chef Gordon Ramsay with a dish. Sure, they signed up for this experience. There are 18 seasons of Hell's Kitchen, after all, so everyone knows what they're getting into by now. Contestants might even feel pretty confident the taste of their food is next-level. Yet, Ramsay's palate, not to mention his knack for totally eviscerating contestants' self-esteem, is legendary. 

Occasionally Ramsay does toss an unexpected compliment someone's way. However, the dishes on this list could not have received a more opposite reaction. Check your appetites at the door, folks. These are the worst dishes to come out of Hell's Kitchen.

The pilot episode of Hell's Kitchen probably delivered an extra punch of nerves to each contestant. It was a brand new show, so no one really knew what to expect. However, everyone was familiar with chef Ramsay and his fear-inducing way of running things. Needless to say, people were on edge. Ramsay had an assortment of dishes spread out in front of him under metal lids and, one by one, he asked the contestant who made each one to step forward so he could begin his critique.

When Ramsay uncovered what appeared to be a piece of chicken and asked who it belonged to, a contestant named Jimmy sheepishly raised his hand and proceeded to step forward. Jimmy explained that the dish was a pan-seared chicken breast stuffed with portobello mushrooms and goat cheese. Ramsay, inspecting the food like a grizzled crime scene detective, told Jimmy that it looked like a plate of dehydrated camel leavings. Of course, the real Gordon Ramsay didn't bother to hold back with the salty language. Yikes! There was also a tuft of carrot tops next to the chicken, which Ramsay flung at Jimmy with a fork due to their bitter taste. The host took one bite of the chicken and spit it out immediately, complaining it was overcooked and dry. With that, Ramsay sent Jimmy back to the contestant lineup with his tail between his legs.

Butterfly shrimp, on their own, can be an absolute delight. Few people need convincing that chocolate sauce is a splendid accompaniment to any post-dinner treat, too. However, when you mix seafood with chocolate, you're walking a fine line between a unique dish that might just play out exactly how you want or an absolutely disastrous combination of flavors that don't belong on the same plate. Unfortunately, one contestant named Rachel found herself experiencing the latter situation. In his classic style, Ramsay didn't hold back when it came time to let her know.

It's never good when the first words out of Ramsay's mouth upon seeing a dish are eye-widening curse words, but that's exactly what he muttered when he unveiled Rachel's shrimp and chocolate creation. However, to Rachel's credit, Ramsay admitted the shrimp was actually cooked quite nicely. However, the addition of the overpowering chocolate drizzle completely "obliterated" the flavor, which, in the end, made the dish "very weird." One of the biggest moments of irony during the segment was noticing the word "SINNER" written on the back of Rachel's shirt. She certainly committed a cardinal sin by mixing and matching two ingredients that Ramsay clearly thought were best left apart.

The combination of surf and turf is a popular one, and for good reason. A little taste of the land complemented with a succulent bite from the ocean pairs together fantastically, as any chef worth their salt will agree. Of course, that pairing has to be done correctly in order to impress the palate of someone who's been working in kitchens their whole life. On Hell's Kitchen, that someone is, of course, Gordon Ramsay. He had a whole lot to say about a contestant named Vinnie's chorizo-crusted snapper.

The very first thing Ramsay asked Vinnie when he unveiled the dish was where the snapper, the supposed star of the dish, was supposed to be. Not a good start. Then, the moment of truth arrived, as Ramsay took his first bite and Vinnie held his breath. The host didn't immediately spit out the mouthful, which was a good start, but he did ask whether or not he thought someone could "seriously eat all that without burning their mouths." The spicy pork chorizo, Ramsay felt, was way too intense for the average palate. "What a disappointment," the chef said after asking the question. Sometimes you surf, sometimes you turf, but that time, Vinnie did neither

There are several moving parts to a kitchen that get pretty wild when a restaurant is running full-force during a lunch or dinner rush. One of those parts is the garde manger, which, according to The Spruce Eats, is the area of the kitchen that cranks out salads, charcuterie boards, and other dishes that don't require any cooking. One contestant, Jen, tried to offer chef Ramsay a Dungeness crab, corn risotto, and lobster tail dish, which, obviously, required cooking, However, the "pizzazz" Jen thought she brought to the dish was immediately crushed by Ramsay, who complained the whole thing tasted as if had come out of the garde manger station. It clearly wasn't cooked.

Risotto can be a tough dish to make even when Gordon Ramsay isn't waiting to rip it apart. It requires patience and precision to get the consistency just right. Ramsay knows this, and he wasn't fooled for a second when he took his first bite. Immediately spitting out the food, he told Jen that "the rice is raw," telling her, simply, "you can't cook." Ouch. Not something you want to hear on a show that literally requires you to do nothing but cook. Jen said of Ramsay's brutal opinion, "There's a difference between constructive criticism and someone just being a butthead." Ramsay clearly doesn't mind being a butthead.

When rattling off your resume to a chef so they can get an idea of how much experience you have, admitting the only expertise you have lies in buffet-style dining can cause them to wince. This essentially means you produce large quantities of less-than-intricate dishes for people who lack experienced palates. It's sheer quantity over quality, potentially with a side of buffet-based scamming, too. Well, that's exactly the reaction Ramsay had when contestant Lacey admitted she worked in buffet-style corporate dining before offering him a taste of her chicken and blackberries.

Upon putting the first forkful of the purple glaze-basted poultry into his mouth, Ramsay spst it out and exclaimed, "That's definitely corporate. You serve, they eat." This statement implied that the people Lacey fed could care less about the flavor of the food. They simply needed to fill their stomachs and she was the uninspired one to provide it. At least Lacey stood confidently while Ramsay insulted her dish. She didn't even bat an eye when he ended her critique with his assumption that after her patrons eat, "they vomit."

When you think of diners you don't necessarily think of fine dining. But, this doesn't take away from the importance or satisfaction of them one bit, as many hungry patrons clearly enjoy them every day. However, when you're facing a Michelin-rated chef, having more than just diner experience is typically necessary if you want to impress them. Contestant Louie, who had roughly 25 years of diner cooking experience, succumbed to the wrath of chef Ramsay, who made it clear the biscuits and gravy Louie was slinging just didn't cut it on Hell's Kitchen.

Biscuits and gravy is a classic comfort stick-to-your-ribs dish that warms the heart and nestles against the soul. Sure, it also does a little artery-clogging, but we can just forget about that minor detail for now. Yet, on Hell's Kitchen, before Ramsay even took a bite, Louie told Ramsay he sold "about five gallons" of his sausage gravy a week. Ramsay quickly and sardonically replied, asking "What, you sell it to pigs?" Louie, clearly confident in the dish, watched as Ramsay took a bite, chewed a few times, and then violently spit it out into the trash next to him. When Louie asked the chef why he didn't like it, Ramsay bluntly replied, "It tastes like gunk." Five gallons is a lot of "gunk" to sell every week, Louie.

Even though you're standing face-to-face with someone who holds the accolades that Gordon Ramsay does, carrying a sous chef title must bring some confidence to your stride. You are, after all, the second-in-command of whatever kitchen you help run, and surely for a good reason. When sous chef Jamie approached chef Ramsay with her chicken Kiev, there was clearly an air of assurance about her. However, the plumes of that energy were quickly extinguished once Ramsay started poking around with his knife and fork. 

Before the host even took a bite, he used his utensils to prod around a bit to ensure the texture of Jamie's chicken was up to snuff. It could not have gone much worse for the sous chef after that. Ramsay didn't even bother tasting the dish once his fork hit something hard and clearly inedible. Not only did Jamie's dish look like a mess, but it turned out that there was an entire toothpick nestled inside the chicken. A cursing Ramsay was clearly disgusted by the potentially life-threatening error. Jamie didn't even try to cover her tracks. She admitted to the blunder and walked away feeling a level of embarrassment that, frankly, she absolutely deserved.

There are few crazier parties than Mardi Gras. If you want to get totally insane and leave all your inhibitions behind, you need to head to New Orleans during this celebration. When line cook Antonia approached Ramsay with a bowl of her Mardi Gras gumbo, she was prepared for the host to celebrate the eclectic flavors partying inside his mouth. However, the party Ramsay was invited to was not the epic fiesta the name implied. In fact, the Devil himself wouldn't have even RSVP'd to this abysmal gathering.

Antonia, standing in front of Ramsay with anxiety presumably coursing through her veins, lifted the lid off her dish. Ramsay's reaction to the look of the dish could not have been worse. He rather graphically asked if it normally looked like a plate of liquid human waste. Whoa. Nevertheless, Ramsay took a bite. His reaction, based on the unsettling visual comparison he made, was exactly what you'd expect: Ramsay gagged and spit the offending mouthful right into the trash. To make Antonia feel even worse about her bowl of liquid... eh, gumbo, Ramsay invited several of the other contestants to taste it. They all had the same response. One guy even said it tasted like "a cat sh** in my mouth." Needless to say, Antonia walked away feeling like she was in the wrong line of work.

Just because you work in a kitchen doesn't always mean you can oversee every station like a pro. The person who's tasked with running the grill likely doesn't know what it takes to tackle the garde manger station, for instance. Likewise, the person who runs the garde manger station probably shouldn't dabble in dessert making without some training first. Ignoring this advice, a pastry chef named Carrie stepped out of her comfort zone and into the realm of the savory, trying to wow Ramsay with a chicken-fried ribeye over Yukon gold mashed potatoes. However, she added in an ingredient that totally threw this Michelin man off his guard.

Sugar. That was what Carrie mixed into her mashed potatoes. That's not exactly the secret to great mashed potatoes. As soon as she told Ramsay, he looked at her as if she had just grown four additional heads, as did many of the contestants standing in the lineup behind her. Carrie, clearly confident, claimed the conglomeration of flavors was up to snuff. Well, it certainly didn't look as though chef Ramsay was excited about the mixture. "That is disgusting," the host instantly said after spitting out the sugary, starchy glop. Carrie, as a pastry chef, clearly had an infatuation with all things sweet. However, she might do better to leave the confection out of mashed potatoes next time, please.

Everyone shows up to Hell's Kitchen with something to prove. Whether they come from less-than-ideal upbringings or perhaps have overcome serious tragedies, they want chef Ramsay to know they mean business when it comes to cuisine. A sous chef named Tiffany arrived on the set with the intention of proving that she wasn't just some ditzy blonde who landed a television gig out of sheer luck. She was confident in her ability to become a professional in the culinary landscape, cooking lamb schnitzel with a rosemary-infused maple gloss to flex her meal-time muscles. The only problem was, she didn't seem to have too many muscles worth flexing.

There are many things to which you don't want someone comparing the texture of your food. Surely, a wet diaper tops the list. That's exactly what Ramsay said about Tiffany's lamb dish. He asked her to poke it with her finger right before making the disgusting comparison. The actual lamb was cooked properly, but Tiffany made a huge mistake by completely dredging the cut of meat in the thick maple gloss, rendering it soggy and, well, diaper-esque. This surely is not the avenue to travel if one wants to arrive at a professional career in food.

Some people don't care about presentation, but others think carefully about how their meal is displayed. Sure, you can serve up food on an ordinary dinner plate, but it's so much more interesting when that plate is substituted with something like a cedar plank. Grilling with cedar might get tricky, but it for sure adds to the visual aesthetics of a dish. And, as we all know, we eat with our eyes as much as we do with our mouths. An executive chef named Chris attempted to impress Ramsay with a cut of salmon served on just such a cedar plank, hoping the host would give props to the unique presentation. Chris had a thing or two to learn about Ramsay's preference for fish.

The exchange between the two immediately started out with Ramsay calling Chris a "plank," which, Ramsay explained, meant "idiot." The host lifted up the salmon and asked why the bottom of it was raw. Chris explained he cooked the fish how he himself would enjoy it: medium-rare. Big mistake. Not only did Ramsay find the temperature of the fish undesirable, but he pointed out to the executive chef nearly the whole cut was raw. Chris, clearly rattled by the verdict, bravely told Ramsay, "I don't agree, chef." Ramsay looked Chris in the eyes and instructed the "plank" to get back in line. Looks clearly didn't save this from being one of the worst dishes to come out of Hell's Kitchen.