Season five begins with Chef Ramsey ordering each contestant to cook up their best dish. But all does not go well. The show has the most ever chefs this season with 16, and is unwieldy, which makes one member of each team responsible for busing tables. And for one, it is a disaster. The kitchen proves to be worse. The winner gets a executive-chef position with an Atlantic City, hotel.

Chef Ramsey puts the Red and Blue teams in a new challenge, which causes tempers to flare and will result in the dismissal of one more contestant.

Chef Ramsey has the remaining 14 chefs make a visit to the meat locker to learn about every cut of beef, then gives them a challenge by declaring the kitchen a steak house for the night.

50 young football players and cheerleaders will be served breakfast by the 13 remaining chefs. One team runs short on eggs, and 1 more chef is released.

As the Blue Team tries their best to make do with Lacey, the Red Team celebrates no longer having her on the team. The chefs are sent to an Asian market, where they buy ingredients for an Asian fusion challenge. The winning team enjoys a day of Asian-themed treats, while the losing team faces an Asian-themed punishment. Come dinner service, both teams are surprised when one of the winning dishes from the challenge is added to the menu. The dinner service begins smoothly, but quickly turns into a calamity. In a repeat of the previous week, Chef Ramsay declares both of the teams to be losers. Then, at the eliminations, he makes a surprising elimination that shows that nobody is safe at any time.

The remaining 11 chefs are challenged to cook variations of the three favorite foods of the honoree for his Bar Mitzvah. The dinner service seems to go well, but not for one contestant.

The remaining 10 chefs are challenged to use leftovers to create tapas-styled dishes (aka, small plates). Both teams are nearly derailed at dinner by one chef's mistake, and the lack of cohesion within the blue team steams chef Ramsey.

The nine remaining chefs feel the pressure with the presence of guest diners Eric McCormack and Robert Patrick, plus they also face a taste-test competition.

The remaining 8 chefs will be working with king crab, and each team will show Chef Ramsey their strongest presentation. Dinner service will find the teams creating a menu.

The six remaining chefs are on their own now that Chef Ramsey has dissolved the teams. This week's challenge is for the chefs to use 14 simple ingredients in a dish. Later, the chefs will once again need to work as one for dinner service, but things heat up and one chef finds themselves in need of medical attention.

The remaining six chefs head to the Borgata Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, where the show's winner will be named a top chef, and are challenged to create a signature dish in which would be served at the Borgata.

The four remaining chefs have a meal cooked for them by Chef Ramsey, then are challenged to recreate what he had prepared. Later, a surprise proposal is planned for the dinner service's desert course.

The remaining three chefs will be cooking up a meal for the 100 top chefs in L.A. The winner will make an appearance on FOX's local morning show, while the losers must clean and iron the Hell's Kitchen's linens and watch the winner on TV. At dinner service, each of the three must run the pass, a test which only two can pass.

It's back to Atlantic City for the final 2 chefs as they discuss their possible menus with the chief operating officer of the Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa. But first they must discuss their space designs at the restaurant with an architect for the final dinner service competition.

The season 5 finale finds the remaining two chefs competing in their final dinner service competition. The winner will be named head-chef at a new restaurant at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City.