Hell's Kitchen (U.S.)

This season opens with twenty aspiring chefs presenting signature dishes in Las Vegas, where they split into two teams and attempt to impress Chef Ramsay. The winning team gets a night on the town and attends a Celine Dion concert; the losing team heads back to Los Angeles.

In the second part of the season opener, the twenty contestants settle into their dorms and prepare their first dinner service, which goes poorly with incomplete and undercooked dishes being served to hapless patrons.

The remaining contestants participate in a physical challenge. Each team has five minutes to climb a wall and retrieve as many lobsters as possible. The winners dine on sushi and get a soothing massage on a yacht. In addition to chowing down on fish-head soup for lunch, the losers handle fish deliveries and dinner service preparation.

The two teams must create a healthy meal for Olympians Maurice Greene, Natalie Coughlin and Danell Leyva after a 3,000 meter run. The winners jet off to California's Temecula Valley Wine Country; the losers clean the race course and prepare for dinner service.

Testing their palates this week, Chef Ramsay orders the remaining contestants to identify the particular protein used in five meat dishes. The fastest team to guess all five proteins wins a day at the beach in Malibu. The losers bake bread by hand.

Dinner service comes to a halt when Jean-Philippe requests help in the dining room. When one contestant from each team helps the wait staff, Ramsay discovers that both suffer from terrible penmanship and draw illegible checks.

Chef Ramsay challenges the remaining contestants to create six stunning Chinese dishes, which will then be judged by the renowned chef Martin Yan. The winners go paintballing while the losers eat balut eggs, as well as make pot stickers and dumplings.

For the team challenge, the remaining contestants visit an animal pen to choose a form of protein to cook with. During the dinner service, the budding chefs must not only impress the regular judges, but Chef Ramsay's family as well.

The aspiring chefs must cut a steak, cook it to medium-rare and then serve it with a spice rub or sauce of their own making. The winners spend the afternoon lounging around a pool while the losers prep both kitchens for the next dinner service.

Hosting its first quinceañera, Hell's Kitchen throws a party fit for a princess. Each team must make a five course tasting menu based on the guest of honor's preferences. The winners spend the day at Knott's Berry Farm while the losers prep the dining area under the supervision of the party planner.

For the challenge, representatives from both teams have thirty seconds to gather as many slips of paper as they can while in a wind chamber. Within 45 minutes, the teams must cook five dishes based on the ingredients listed on the slips. The winners receive a Vitamix blender and participate in a photoshoot for "People" magazine; the losers have to clean the dorms.

Chef Ramsay asks the teams to create their own menus for a dinner service that features Ian Ziering ("Beverly Hills, 90210") and Nikki SooHoo ("The Lovely Bones") as special guests.

The teams must create an ethnic dish in 45 minutes including a protein of their choice. The winners go on a shopping spree at a boutique, attend a private dining service at Mr. Chow and receive a set of copper-clad cookware. The losers deliver wine, slice forty pounds of lemons and limes and prep both kitchens for the dinner service.

The remaining chefs participate in a challenge that tests their skills at identifying foods merely by touch. The winners eat seafood at Malibu's Nobu restaurant and ride on horseback in the Santa Monica Mountains. The losers deliver supplies and prep both kitchens for dinner service.

The signature dish challenge continues from the previous episode. Chef Ramsay rewards the chef who has made the greatest stride in the competition with immunity from elimination during the next dinner service, in which the contestants try to impress TV host Maria Menounos ("Today," "Access Hollywood," "Extra") and actor Jeremy Sisto ("Clueless," "Six Feet Under," "Law & Order").

Chef Ramsay tests the remaining contestants' abilities to communicate with one another in a three-entrée relay race. The winners tour Los Angeles by helicopter and visit the King Gillette Ranch to sample caviar; the losers first unload a truck of potatoes to prepare meals for the Los Angeles Mission, then prep both kitchens for service.

Each chef has 45 minutes to use a pressure cooker to make a meal using one of five cheap cuts of meat - each hidden in a pressure cooker - and fashion the dish as a five-star entrée. The winner dines with their family at Wolfgang Puck's W24 in downtown L.A.; the losers do maintenance work for TreePeople at Coldwater Canyon before sorting the recyclables at Hell's Kitchen.

Chef Ramsay devises a team of former "Hell's Kitchen" winners to challenge the remaining contestants. The two teams must wow Chef Ramsay with their signature dishes.

The budding chefs create ten gourmet burgers, which are then evaluated by Chef Ramsay, Jean-Philippe and a row of judges associated with some of the finest restaurants in the country. The winner spends the day at a local spa while the losers do chores and prep the kitchen for dinner service.

The remaining four contestants split into two teams. In a "taste it, now make it" challenge, each team has thirty minutes to replicate the sample dish using only taste, touch and sight. The winner goes on a shopping spree with Jean-Philippe and dines with Chef Ramsay. The losers move furniture in the dorms and prepare for dinner service.

The final two chefs must prepare two appetizers and three entrées to present to a panel of respected judges. The winner gets first pick in drafting a team comprised of chefs eliminated from the competition prior to the finale.

The top two chefs compete for the "Hell's Kitchen" title.