The eighteenth season of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen (officially known as Hell's Kitchen: Rookies vs. Veterans) began airing on September 28, 2018 on Fox. Gordon Ramsay returns as host and head chef, and Season 10 winner Christina Wilson and British MasterChef judge James &quot;Jocky&quot; Petrie return as the red and blue sous chefs, respectively, alongside maitre&amp;#39;d Marino Monferrato. This season features eight new contestants battling eight returning veterans. For the first time, the winner of this season will receive a position as an executive chef at Gordon Ramsay Hell&#39;s Kitchen Restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the first season since season 1 to not begin with men on the blue team and women on the red team. It is also the third of the last four seasons to feature a chef eliminated during service, the first season since season 13 that no chef from the winning team was eliminated, and the first season since season 12 where two chefs quit. This is also the first season to have a chef quit before the finals. Ariel Contreras-Fox, who previously finished in third place on Season 6, won the competition; she is the second consecutive returnee, and sixth consecutive woman to do so. She is also the ninth contestant to win the competition without being nominated for elimination once, after Kimberly-Ann Ryan, Meghan Gill, La Tasha McCutchen, Christina Wilson, Holli Ugalde,  Dave Levey, Heather West, and Michael Wray.！