- published: 11 Nov 2015
- views: 36115
Hell's Kitchen was a British cookery reality show aired on ITV which featured prospective chefs competing with each other for a final prize. Four series had been aired since 2004, three presented by Angus Deayton and the latest by Claudia Winkleman.
The show had different formats and different head chefs for each of the first three seasons. The original chef Gordon Ramsay subsequently signed an exclusive UK contract with Channel 4, ruling out any possibility of his appearing on future episodes of the ITV-produced show.
A fourth series began airing from 13 April 2009 and was presented by Claudia Winkleman.
Series 1 of Hell's Kitchen in the UK was broadcast from 23 May - 6 June 2004. It starred Gordon Ramsay as the Head Chef tutoring celebrities how to cook.
The show, which ran nightly for two weeks, placed ten celebrities in a specially constructed London restaurant-kitchen with the task of catering for a clientele of famous people.
The celebrities who took part were:
Jennifer Ellison was declared the winner after a series of public elimination votes (in the style of Big Brother). A follow-up programme was made afterwards called Hell's Kitchen: School Reunion, which saw Ellison and the show runner-up, James Dreyfus, team up to organise a healthy dinner service for the children at Ramsay's former school, Stratford Upon Avon High School.