[1] Both seasons were filmed in 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic)[2][3] at a television studio a short distance from the actual Hell's Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Reward/punishment: After winning with a final score of 30–28, the women ate lunch at Gordon Ramsay Steak, while the men had to prepare stock for both kitchens.

The red team had a flawless service, besides vegans Emily and Josie being slightly confused on fish and meat respectively.

Jay delivered a raw salmon before entrées began, Matthew undercooked lamb, and Payton forgot an order of chicken while giving out inconsistent times.

Despite being given a wake-up call in the pantry room, the men continued to give conflicting times, so a fed up Ramsay kicked them out and asked for two nominees.

After Payton and Jayaun gave their pleas, Ramsay eliminated Matthew without hearing one, for his bad attitude and consistently terrible performances, even while using a meat thermometer during service.

Reward/punishment: The women drove off-road trucks in sand dunes and were treated to lunch from BLT Steak, while the men prepared a delivery of seafood and ate raw calamari sandwiches.

Reward/punishment: They toured the Las Vegas Strip, Grand Canyon, and Hoover Dam in a private plane and stayed overnight at Planet Hollywood while the men prepared pastries for Caesar's-owned buffets.

For the first time this season, the red team struggled, as Josie burnt pizzas, Brynn called out the wrong tickets, while Victoria sent up salmon too early and undercooked the refire.

Team Challenge: The chefs would have to create three appetizers and three entrées to be served during a special dinner service for Megan Ramsay's 21st birthday party.

Since the score was tied at three-three, Megan's noodles was selected as the best dish of the day, earning the blue team their first challenge victory.

Josie, Keanu, Victoria, Emily, and Sam were voted to participate in the Cook For Your Life challenge, where they had 45 minutes to create a dish using Brussels sprouts, sweet potato, green apple, bourbon, and double bone pork chop.

Megan fell behind by 15 minutes on lobster spaghetti after she forgot to start boiling water, while Victoria failed to speak up while leading the snapper course.

The red team began to fall apart as Sam served risotto of inconsistent portion sizes, Brynn broke down in tears after Josie gave her raw snapper, and Trenton and Josie both got stalled by raw filets, including Kiya cooking filets before the snappers were served.

Steve continued to take a backseat until Ramsay threatened him with automatic ejection, but both teams finished service on a positive note.

Although Ramsay was frustrated with Steve's lack of communication throughout the dinner service, he eliminated Josie for her declining performances but praised her passion.

Team Challenge: The chefs used a dating app interface to match ingredients to proteins: lobster, filet, New York strip, or pork chop.

The ingredients turned out to be rice, pepper, turnips, heirloom tomatoes, lemons and black truffles; Ramsay then added bluefin tuna as the main protein.

Reward/punishment: Trenton received a VIP tour of the Hell's Kitchen restaurant hosted by season 17 winner Michelle Tribble and a meatball-making master class, and chose to take Steve with him.

Trenton was unfamiliar with working in the red kitchen and communicated poorly from the garnish station until Ramsay intervened, while Steve also struggled to assert himself and overcooked Wellingtons.

Trenton missed the tuna tartare as well, but recovered after Ramsay told him to wake up, and proved to be a vocal, if occasionally abrasive, leader.

Megan led strongly and was the only one to pass quality control: a risotto with orzo pasta instead of rice, and zucchini instead of peas in a carbonara.

In a very tough decision, Ramsay then named Kiya as the third finalist and eliminated Brynn, whom he felt was not emotionally strong enough to lead as a head chef.

They will each receive the help of a sous-chef: Megan got Christina, Kiya got Jason, and Trenton got Michelle, season 17 winner who appeared two episodes ago.

Individual challenge: The next morning, the final three got to spend time with their families: Megan's parents, Kiya's mother and sister, Trenton's father and girlfriend.

They each get a full makeover before being transported to the site of their final challenge, where they would have an hour to cook their menus which would be scored one to ten by a panel of guest judges.

On the last dish Kiya held a 35-34 lead, but she only scored eight on her surf and turf after overseasoning her filet, opening the door for Megan to claim the second spot in the finale with a perfect 10.

Sous-chef Christina has to warn Megan about being too nice, while Trenton's brigade finds him too bossy, especially Kiya and Brynn, who are dealing with the emotions of not making it to the finals.

Shortly before service begins, Ramsay calls Megan and Trenton up to the dorms, demanding to know who is responsible for a bag with what appears to be drugs and threatening disqualification, before revealing it was a joke and handing them their chef's jackets.

Winner announced: After having reached a decision, Ramsay called down Megan and Trenton to his office and offered them praise for their hard work throughout the course of the competition.