Joy Parham-Thomas

Hometown	Philadelphia, PA
Occupation	Kitchen Supervisor
Statistics
Placement	5th

Joy Parham-Thomas was a contestant on Season 12 of Hell's Kitchen. She ranked in 5th place.

Personality

Despite a rocky start, Joy quickly became the most consistant and strongest member of the red team, and earned a black jacket during an individual challenge. However, the success went to her head, manipulating nominations to protect her friend Kashia, as well as displaying sexist attitudes towards Scott. Finally, she crumbled during the second black jacket service, quitting while it was still going on.

Season 12

Episode 1

During dinner service, Joy was on the fish station with Nicole. She had a lot of difficulties communicating with Sandra, and was trying very hard to keep Nicole involved. At one point, Sandra sent a risotto, only for Ramsay to find out the lobster tail was not done yet. She claimed it would take her 45 seconds to cook a lobster tail, and Ramsay timed her. When time was up, the lobster tail was still cold, and Ramsay kicked her out of the kitchen, along with Nicole and Sandra. Back in the dorms, she tried to stop an argument between her two teammates. Both teams were named joint-losers, and were asked to nominate two people each.

She was not nominated for elimination.

Episode 18

During the Leftovers Challenge, Joy had problems with her chicken protein as she found it raw, but tried to bounce back. Her dish was a Coriander-Crusted Chicken. It was criticized for not being crispy enough, and her salad aside was badly prepared. She lost the challenge and was forced to prep pumpkin and squash.

During dinner service, Joy was on the fish station. Despite acknowedging Rochelle's timing on the meat, she made an unusual mistake by bringing up the halibut before her and Jason were ready with their dishes, and even forgetting mussels in one of the orders. Then, she shut down and did not communicate with anyone when Ramsay told her to talk. The same mistake would happen again when she sent up the halibut early again, despite Jason saying he was a minute behind on his garnishes. When that happened, Ramsay pulled her aside and told her he needed the garnish before the halibut, but she got confused and frustrated by this and left mid-argument. When Ramsay called her on her attitude, she declared that she was done, and left the kitchen, much to the shock of everyone. As she left the kitchen, throwing her jacket off in the process, Ramsay followed her and called her out on her selfish attitude once again. She yelled at him back and went upstairs, with Ramsay saying that it was showing in her cooking that she gave up. Back in the dorms, she was seen packing up her things, when Sous Chef Andi came up to try and talk some sense into her. She felt remorse for her actions, and while she wanted to go apologize to Ramsay and see if she could come back, she ultimately decided against it, believing it was too late. During her exit interview, she received a retrospective montage of her run, and received the burning picture sequence at the end of the episode.

Ramsay's comment: "Joy's quitting was one of the most shocking things I've ever experienced in Hell's Kitchen. But her lack of maturity tonight proved that she is not ready to be a head chef, because leaders never quit."

Trivia

• She is the first person to receive a black jacket during a challenge.
• She is the second black jacket contestant to withdraw, following Robert from Season 5.
• She is the third contestant to quit during service after Jeff (Season 1) and Andrew (Season 7), the first as a black jacket to do so, and the first woman to do so.
• She is responsible for one of two of the most shocking black jacket exits ever, the other being Josh from Season 3.
• She did not come back for the last dinner service of the season as supposed to, so Bev took her place.
• She is the fourth black jacket contestant to not return for the last dinner service, following Robert (Season 5), Tennille (Season 6), and Ed (Season 7).

Quotes

• (Mimicking Simone) "I think it's a great opportunity, Chef."
• "I'm done! Leave me alone, leave me alone... I'm done with this shit!"