Gordon Ramsay scared everyone on the set of “Hell’s Kitchen,” according to former contestants who are speaking out about the sharp-tongued chef’s on-set aggression.
Addressing what it was like behind the scenes of the popular cooking competitive show, several ex-stars — including winners Michael Wray and Ariel Malone — spilled about the intense kitchen environment in Vice TV’s “Dark Side of Reality TV.”
In an exclusive clip of the upcoming episode obtained by People magazine, journalist Ivy Knight compared Ramsay’s series to “throwing babies into a lion’s mouth.”
Elsie Ramons — who competed in Season 1 and finished in fourth place during the show’s 2005 debut — alleged that “everybody was scared” on the set.
“Let’s just put it that way. Everybody was afraid,” Ramos claimed.
Ramsay has made his bold and hot-headed personality in the kitchen his brand for decades, even butting heads with Lisa Vanderpump; however, Ramos told Vice she “did not expect to see that fiery bully.”
Tek Moore, who finished 12th in Season 6, echoed Ramos’ claims.
“Chefs know how to verbally disembowel people,” he shared.
But only some took the British chef’s abrupt boldness to heart.
Wray won the first season of “Hell’s Kitchen,” collecting the $250,000 grand prize, and addressed the accusations against the chef turned TV host.
“Any of these guys that came on the show that never really worked in a kitchen before, they all took it the same way,” he shared. “They took it personal.”
The same can’t be said for Wray, who recalled, “Gordon, he told me, ‘You never tell your employees that they’re doing a good job. The instant you tell them that is when they stop trying.’”
Malone, who won Season 15, has the same perspective.
“When you’re in karate class, is your sansei a bully or is he your teacher? It’s the same thing,” she shared.
“Hell’s Kitchen” has aired 23 seasons since it premiered in 2005. Ramsay has hosted the competition series — now on Fox — over the past 19 years. The show has been spawned several franchise restaurants with the same name throughout the U.S., including cities like New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Washington, DC, and Atlantic City.
The Post has reached out to Ramsay’s rep.
“Hell’s Kitchen” has earned five Primetime Emmy nominations.
Ramsay addressed his on-screen persona before, revealing that he’s much different at home than on TV. The Michelin star chef and his wife, Tana, whom he married in 1996, share six kids — daughters Megan, 26, Matilda (aka Tilly), 22; sons Oscar, 5, Jesse James, born in 2023; and fraternal twins, Holly and Jack, 24.
“I think everyone’s got a good and bad side in them,” he told People in 2023. “I’m just very good at highlighting the bad that turned into something incredible.”
Ramsay credits his children for softening him up.
“The kids have brought the most emotion out of me,” he said. “It’s funny, isn’t it? Because everyone thinks, ‘God, you must be an absolute ass to be at home with.’ [But] Tana’s super fierce, an ex-Montessori school teacher. So I’m the softie.”
“The Dark Side of Reality TV” episode about Ramsay’s “Hell’s Kitchen” airs Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. EST on Vice TV.
