Former contestants speak out on a new episode of Vice’s “Dark Side of Reality TV.”
As everyone introduced themselves, she sensed a theme: They were all professionals.
“That was messed up!”
The cast of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ in the first season.20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection
And I’m like, f—!."
As they experienced it, theGordon Ramsayshow that’s aired since 2005, wasn’t as it appeared.
A rep for Fox declinedEntertainment Weekly’s request for comment.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ contestant Elsie Ramos looks back on the show.Vice TV
Ramos said in the doc that the show was sometimes downright scary for her.
“I was like, either I was set up or… or I’m in big trouble!”
Vice TV
“We were all lined up,” Ramos said.
Michael Wray declined part of his ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ prize.Vice TV
“I just got like really, really faint.
It was just this overwhelming like, ‘Oh, my god, I made turkey tacos.'”
then deemed the plate “not bad.”
Van Hurd, who first competed in the sixth season, noticed the range in experience.
“The casting’s weird,” he said.
“Like some people, like, they did not belong there.
And I think they put ‘em there to to get ‘em out early.
I would not want to be on that show with zero culinary background.”
“That’s not how a real restaurant works.”
There were complaints, too, that prepped food magically disappeared.
Ramos managed to survive on the competition show until the final four chefs.
Along the way, she and the others had an up close view of Ramsay’s combative coaching style.
“I was getting a months worth of medication every week.
I brought in, like, an extra 500 pills.
“Am I gonna go out there with a giant addiction?”
asked Wray, who later experienced homelessness for a time.
“It’s just… that pressure of that choice finally hit me.
I just wasn’t in control of my life enough.
I had to say no.”
“And when I got there, it was mostly they wanted me to… be on the floor.
They didn’t want me in the kitchen.
And they’re like, ‘No.
You’re paid talent.
Go take a f—ing picture.'”
Dark Side of Reality TVairs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Vice.
Future episodes focus onExtreme Makeover: Home Editionand the first season ofSurvivor.
