Blog:Hell's Kitchen All-Stars: Fatties vs. Chainsmokers (FAKE)

Hell’s Kitchen All-Stars: Fatties vs. Chainsmokers is the twenty-third and final season of the reality competition Hell’s Kitchen. It aired on Fox from April 29, 2024 to June 24, 2024.

Premise
Eight morbidly obese chefs from previous seasons in the red kitchen battle eight heavy smoking chefs from previous seasons in the blue kitchen for a head chef position at the Heart Attack Grill.

Fatties

 * Robert (5/6)
 * Kimmie (10)
 * Cyndi (11)
 * Jennifer (9/17)
 * Jeremy (11)
 * Raj (8)
 * Nedra (11)
 * Clemenza (10)

Chainsmokers

 * Trev (8/18)
 * Anton (12)
 * Fran (7)
 * Barbie (10/17)
 * Bret (14/18)
 * Jackie (15)
 * Heidi (16)
 * Jon (11)

Ranking
16: Clemenza (hosp.) 15: Fran 14: Jon 13: Jeremy 12: Cyndi 11: Anton (kicked out w/ Jackie) 10: Jackie (kicked out w/ Anton) 9: Jennifer 8: Raj 7: Heidi 6: Barbie -Black jackets- 5: Nedra 4: Bret (hosp.) 3: Kimmie Runner-up: Trev Winner: Robert

Bret was still in the hospital after his simultaneous mental breakdown and heart attack, while Jackie and Anton were not allowed back due to breaking contract by engaging in sexual relations with one another, so Cyndi and Jeremy took their places during the final service.

First pick: Robert

Robert’s Brigade: Kimmie Jennifer Cyndi Jeremy

Trev’s Brigade: Nedra Barbie Heidi Raj (kicked out)

Why This Season is Likely to Suffer a Premature Death

 * 1) The concept not only comes off as a desperate attempt by Gordon Ramsay to claim that he is not biased in favor of pretty young women, but also as one to make as many cheap jokes as possible at the expense of the morbidly obese and cigarette smokers.
 * 2) Being dedicated to the memories of previous contestants Aaron Song and Louis Petrozza, who died of type 2 diabetes and lung cancer respectively, seems rather distasteful.
 * 3) It has some very questionable casting choices.
 * 4) Clemenza has a heart attack while making his signature dish, and is the first one out for that.
 * 5) It is disappointing to see Jon not caring at all the second time around because he already works for Ramsay even though he did not technically win his season. He bombs hard and goes early on.
 * 6) Anton now has a hole in his throat and speaks with a voice box. His voice box voice is even rougher and deeper than it was before.
 * 7) Raj and Robert had both previously lost a lot of weight, but come back to Hell’s Kitchen morbidly obese again.
 * 8) Additionally, multiple contestants had already been in two seasons before this one, so the series appears to be milking the same ratings-grabbing personalities over again.
 * 9) Many of this season’s chefs’ personas appear to have undergone something like Flanderization if it applied to people on reality shows.
 * 10) Raj is even crazier and more of a glutton than he was in Season 8.
 * 11) Anton is much slimier and sleazier than he was in Season 12.
 * 12) Jackie is more obnoxious and inappropriate in the workplace than she was in Season 15.
 * 13) Nedra’s hilarious antics continue further as well.
 * 14) Bret cries after every single challenge this time around, regardless of whether or not his team wins.
 * 15) Kimmie still never shuts up about being a southerner.
 * 16) Trev has become even more of a whiny brooder upon reaching his mid-forties.
 * 17) It is easily noticeable that Ramsay is in extreme arthritic pain and having trouble avoiding any actions that would aggravate his condition.
 * 18) On a similar note, the punishments for the Fatties and Chainsmokers upon losing challenges are cruel to force on people with their lifestyles. It is a miracle there are only two heart attacks throughout the course of the season because of what they have to go through.
 * 19) The Fatties have to run 10 laps around the Hell’s Kitchen premises without any breaks after losing the high fiber diet challenge. Jennifer passes out in her own vomit, Robert publicly has an accident in his pants, and Cyndi is rushed to the hospital unable to breathe but is able to return for the next dinner service. However, Raj mysteriously disappears when the punishment takes place and somehow gets away with blowing it off.
 * 20) The Chainsmokers’ delivery day punishment after losing the blind taste test includes carrying a 500-pound coffin, which turns out to only contain a photo of them all smoking, causing Barbie and Bret to both burst into tears.
 * 21) In order to better represent their sides of the kitchen, Sous Chef Christina has been contractually forced to gain a lot of weight and is miserable over it, while Sous Chef Jason is prevented from any attempts to quit smoking, and even required to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day in order to keep his position.
 * 22) One of the dinner services is a medical benefit for Season 9 runner-up Will Lustberg, who now weighs 475 pounds and has recently been diagnosed with COPD. He is covered in nicotine patches and painfully coughs up mucus multiple times throughout the episode. Although people talk about how much they honor him that night, showing him in that kind of condition seems very disrespectful to his legacy on Hell's Kitchen.
 * 23) Cyndi, Jennifer, and Heidi are all gone after one bad night, while the higher drama contestants such as Raj, Nedra, and Trev are each forgiven multiple times for screwing up.
 * 24) * Speaking of Raj, he is nominated every time the Fatties lose a dinner service and somehow manages to make it halfway through, only going after the best service of the season where there is no case whatsoever for anyone being eliminated other than him.
 * 25) It tries to be more like other reality shows by focusing on shipping the contestants in a much further way than Hell's Kitchen has gone before.
 * 26) Love triangle: Robert and Kimmie/Robert and Jennifer
 * 27) Raj and Nedra
 * 28) Trev and Barbie
 * 29) Anton and Jackie
 * 30) * They get kicked out after the cameras catch her blowing him in the dorm bathroom. This is shown on screen, which is shocking even with Anton's penis blurred out.
 * 31) ** Even before this happens, there are lots of cringey scenes of them flirting, cuddling, and kissing each other. Jackie even inhales the cigarette smoke coming out of the hole in Anton’s throat.
 * 32) Both teams lose the dinner service after Jackie and Anton are expelled, and instead of eliminating anyone, Ramsay puts the nominated Raj, Nedra, Trev, and Bret on probation like he had done in Season 11. Underwhelmingly, all four get their jackets back before the next dinner service though, and for very trivial things; Raj is even redeemed just for the Fatties winning the next challenge, even though his dish in it was horrible.
 * 33) Nedra getting the last black jacket over Barbie in the black jacket challenge is hard to justify, especially because during the final round Nedra’s rice was completely hard inside, while Barbie’s ribeye was only slightly undercooked.
 * 34) Bret’s mental breakdown followed by a heart attack after the final four take their turns running the pass is very painful to watch. The suspense of going through with finding out who the final two will be almost kills him literally.
 * 35) Robert wins even though Trev has a much better finale. Robert has trouble managing his team and lets Jeremy go wild, while Trev kicks Raj out early on, whom he gets stuck with as the bottom pick. This causes Trev to go on a tearful rant about how much of a failure he is in life and even attempt suicide by eating a pack of cigarettes, which results in him being rushed to the hospital to have his stomach pumped.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Due to the high number of unusual eliminations, the season goes by pretty quickly and is not ridiculously dragged out.
 * 2) There are some funny moments.
 * 3) Anton claims he “did not have sexual relations with that Jersey woman” after getting busted receiving a blowjob from Jackie.
 * 4) Raj wants more of what Ramsay feeds him during the blind taste test.
 * 5) Raj teaches Nedra how to do drunken karate.
 * 6) Even though the Chainsmokers look like a stronger team on paper, the teams end up being very evenly matched performance-wise.

Reception
Fatties vs. Chainsmokers was widely panned by both professional critics and the Hell’s Kitchen fanbase. Because many viewers either found the idea completely appalling or considered a season with no physically attractive chefs to be uninteresting, ratings fell hard and Hell’s Kitchen was canceled shortly after it concluded. Upon being told about the series' cancelation, Ramsay reacted: "But isn't that what those yanks fucking want in their reality television? Fucking Hell."

Trivia

 * This is the first season not to have any team switches.
 * This is the third season to not start out with all the women on the red team and all the men on the blue team, after Season 1 and Season 18.
 * This season contains the earliest exit from the competition of the series, with Clemenza's heart attack before the signature dishes are judged.
 * This is the first season to have chefs get kicked out at a time not during a dinner service or elimination ceremony for their conduct in the dorms.
 * This is the first season a contestant over the age of 40 wins.

Aftermath
Despite winning, Robert was unable to take the position due to the Heart Attack Grill’s kitchen ironically not being large enough for someone his size to move around in. Ramsay offered to pay to send him to a weight loss program so he could lose enough to fit in the kitchen, but Robert responded: “Fuck you Gordon. I’m going to hang up my chef’s jacket and become a crack whore.”