Gia Young

“

Sorry I cut my finger off, chef!

”

Hometown	Queens, NY
Occupation	Catering Chef
Statistics
Signature Dish Challenge Score	4 out of 5
Challenges Won	2
Services Won	3
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	15th
Episode Eliminated	Surf Riding & Turf Fighting

Rajeeyah "Gia" Young was a contestant on Season 16 of Hell's Kitchen. She ranked in 15th place.

Season 16

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 1601 - When the Wall Comes Tumbling Down

On the bus ride to Hell's Kitchen, Gia openly wanted the men gone from the competition, but Andrew disagreed with that notion. While the chefs were expecting to arrive at the restaurant, the bus instead pulled up to an army base. After leaving the bus, the chefs lined up in front of their own duffel bags, and as the Drill Sargent was barking out orders, a tank pulled up behind him, and Ramsay came out of it. Then, Ramsay explained that before the chefs could enter Hell’s Kitchen, he wanted to make sure that they all had the discipline to survive, noting that the army was the perfect example to prepare them. After, Ramsay said that if they could survive boot camp, then he will be convinced that they were worthy of competing. After changing into their uniforms, the chefs were put through an obstacle course, with her ready to show what a leader she could be, and jogged over to Ramsay who was in front of a giant wall, which he called the toughest challenge. After the chefs claimed that they were ready, Ramsay was happy to hear it as the wall fell on him, revealing the front of the restaurant, and a large crowd waiting for them. Now that he saw the chef’s commitment and desire to compete, Ramsay announced that it was time for them to cook their signature dishes.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Gia was the first person to have her dish judged by Ramsay and went up against Pat. Before tasting her dish, she revealed that she started cooking to make her family happy, and explained that her friends said that she could charge people for her cooking, but had to clarify to Ramsay that it did not include her friends at all. She made shrimp and grits with cheese and bacon, and while it was criticized for a messy presentation, it was praised for tasting quite nice, she scored 4 points, and she was happy to show up the men for their boasting on the bus. The red team won the challenge 28-25, and they were rewarded with a ride on a stretch Hummer limousine, dinner at the Takami Restaurant with Ramsay, and got to meet Christina (Season 4) and Scott (Season 12). During the reward, she was happy to spend the reward chilling with the red team and felt that it was things to come for them.

During dinner service, Gia was on the meat station with Heather. She was not seen much, except for being proud of Jessica for her perfect salmon, and the red team won the service by a mile.

Episode 2

Main article: Episode 1602 - Crepe Grand Prix

Back at the dorms, Gia walked into the blue team's nude hot tub session, jokingly asked to see the men’s wiener schnitzel, and smacked Aaron on the butt.

During the Crepe Grand Prix Challenge, Gia was paired up with Heather, and while cooking their crepes, she accidentally cut herself while cutting chicken, and wore a rubber glove. While Heather ridiculed her driving through the course, even being compared to a taxi driver in New York City, she argued that she was a great driver despite the fact her license was suspended. Out of their three attempts, all of them were accepted.

The red team lost the challenge 9-10 and were punished by participating in fish delivery day which included taking in seafood, prepping them for the following service, and drinking a fish gut milkshake. During the punishment, Gia asked Sous Chef Andi if she was fucking serious, and while she refused to drink it, the latter retorted that she probably swallowed worst. She then complained that Wendy's retching was not helping her drink her shake, and continued to bitch about it.

Before service began, Gia called it fucked up that Shaina never told the red team about receiving a real milkshake. During dinner service, she was on the fish station with Heather. At one point, she temporarily left the kitchen before returning and asked Ramsay if she could make more toffee pudding. However, Ramsay reminded her that she was on fish and that they had to send out both appetizers and entrées first before desserts. The red team eventually won the service after completing the blue team's service.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 1603 - The Yolks on Them

During the Ostrich Meat Challenge, Gia was seen during the first part and complained about the amount of gunk that came out of it. When the red board was filled up, she was forced to swap out one of their ingredients, but she got annoyed when the red team was telling what to swap out. After David McMillan compared Aaron's dish to something his twelve-year-old would make, she laughed in amusement. She was paired up with Jessica on the oysters, they were the third pair from the red team to have their dishes judged, and went up against Andrew and Paulie. She made ostrich skewers with an orange and black garlic barbecue sauce, it was criticized for having no spice or acidity, and she lost that round to the blue team. The red team won the challenge 3-1, and they were rewarded with a zip lining at Big Bear Lake and got to fly in a private jet. During the reward, she claimed that she always knew she would fly in a private jet.

During prep, Gia did not contribute and argued that she was not in the mood to do prep work, much to the annoyance of Aziza, Wendy, and Heather. During dinner service, she was at the meat station with Aziza. At one point, she sent up her lamb, but despite being scared, it was deemed perfect. However, her next lamb was overcooked, and after sending up her refire despite being scared, Ramsay horrifyingly saw that her Wellingtons were improperly sliced, even noting that he has never seen that in the show’s history before. Then, she revealed that she nearly cut her finger off doing it, Ramsay called for the medic and asked her to show him her cut. However, Ramsay could not see the cut as there was no blood on her finger, and after deeming her a drama queen, the medic came by only for her to rudely say that nobody needed a medic. Later, her Wellingtons were raw and it was one of the factors that got the red team kicked out of the kitchen.

The red team lost the service and were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, Shaina asked Gia what happened on the lamb, but while she argued that she was a team player on other nights, Kimberly reminded her that meat sucked that night and caused a domino effect. However, she argued that even with Kimberly’s sorry ass scallops, and Jessica’s poor performance, everybody was ganging up on her for the lamb. Then, she considered Kimberly the one to go home, and when she reminded the latter that fish fucked up as well, it led to a fierce argument between the two.

Gia was named the red team's first nominee for elimination, with Jessica as the second. During her plea, she claimed that she was a hard worker and ready to help out with no attitude, but Kimberly disagreed with that notion and told Ramsay that she did have an attitude that night, along with not helping out more. Despite that, she refused to go home without a fight despite what Kimberly said, and revealed that Jessica had already packed her bags. She survived elimination, and when being dismissed, Ramsay warned her that she dodged a bullet, and she was happy to be around despite her teammate's complaints.

Episode 4

Main article: Episode 1604 - Surf Riding & Turf Fighting

While going back to the dorms, Gia called her teammates bitches and savages and was angry that they accused her of being a bitch and hard to work with. While Shaina tried to remind her that nobody is there to be friends, she suggested that she should just bite the bullet as she was nominated that night. That led to her proclaiming that she would not let the red team see her cry.

During the Protein Identification Challenge, Gia was paired up with Kimberly, and they were the second pair from the red team to compete. They randomly picked venison and bay scallop, and while their first two pairings of scallops and buffalo were incorrect, followed by scallops and elk, their third attempt was correct. The red team lost the challenge 13 minutes and 41 seconds to 9 minutes and 46 seconds, and they were punished by making sausages from scratch and eating unknown meat for lunch.

During dinner service, Gia was on the garnish station. On the special twelve top table, not only did she not call out for times on garnish, she had no idea where her stuff was, much to Heidi’s frustration who ordered her to get her head in the game. Ramsay was pissed as the entrées were already on the pass, and then, she dumped burnt garnishes into the trash, but she revealed that she accidentally put kermits instead of capers inside the potatoes, yelled that she needed a minute to absorb her surroundings, and her mistake had the twelve top being forced to wait impatiently. Later, she sent up improperly portioned green beans, Ramsay was angrier that she was not even listening, before adding on that the beans were saturated in butter and overcooked. Then, she threw her arms up in the air, and when Ramsay asked her what that was, she argued that she was listening, but he accused her of giving up. After, she received help from Ryan, and she was finally able to send out food. The red team won the service, and she was happy that they did because if the red team lost, her teammates would have found something to blame her for.

Despite being on the winning team, Gia was eliminated for her poor performance on garnish, failing to improve her poor attitude, and feeling that she has given up. During her exit interview, she angrily argued that she should not have been eliminated and believed that the person who was nominated should have gone home instead.

Ramsay's comment: "I gave Gia a second chance, which proved to be two chances too many. See you, Gia."

Nomination history

Week 1	Win
Week 2	Win
Week 3	Nominated
Week 4	Eliminated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After her appearance on the show, Gia returned to New York.
• She is currently a head chef at her own catering service named Sinfully-G-licious.
• She currently works in customer service and sales and is currently Customer Service Technical Specialist at Sandata Technologies.

Trivia

• She is the seventh contestant to be eliminated despite being on the winning team, and the second female, following Carol (Season 5), Salvatore (Season 7), Raj (Season 8), Jeremy (Season 11), Randy (Season 14), and Joe (Season 15).
• Her and Mieka's (Season 14) nomination history are very similar: they were both only nominated for elimination on the third episode of the season, then they were both eliminated without being nominated on the following episode, and they both ranked in 15th place.
• She is the first contestant ever who faked an injury during service.
• She and Aziza are the first two contestants to this date with the same surname to compete in the same season.

Quotes

• "Sorry I cut my finger off, chef!"
• (After Ramsay asks where her "cut" is) "Right here... It's not there."
• "No, nobody needs a fucking medic!"
• (During elimination) "I'm not going home. I'm not accepting defeat no matter what any of them say. I'm here and I'm ready to learn. (points to Jessica) She's already packed. I'm not packed. I'm ready to stay here."
• (After being eliminated) "I'm in shock. I don't even know what happened. I don't know why I'm standing here. I'm not happy to be leaving under these circumstances. I think somebody else deserved to out here. Who? I don't give a fuck. But I wasn't up for elimination. So the person that was up for elimination should be out here."

Gallery

• Chef
• Dishes

Gia's Intro Spot

Gia in Red Jacket

Gia's Confessional

Jessica and Gia Nominated

Gia Eliminated

Gia's Signature Dish

Gia's Ostrich Meat Dish (Oyster Cut)

External links

• Rajeeyah "Gia" Young on Instagram