Heather Lingard

**Heather Lingard** was a contestant on Hell's Kitchen: Amateurs. She was named the winner of the season and was awarded a Head Chef position at Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen In Washington DC, with a $250,000 salary.

## Personality

Despite starting off with a weak signature dish, Heather would quickly establish herself as the strongest link in the incredibly argumentative red team, usually being the one to see reason and try to keep the service from getting out of hand, quickly establishing herself as the leader of the red team. While initially starting out as laid back and carefree, she would start to get snarkier and more frustrated as the failures of the red team started to weigh down on her. Despite this, she would never give up on her team, even after being given the chance to ditch them to join the blue team on a reward, and she would continue to establish herself as the strongest leader overall. Her passion, natural leadership, and ability to bounce back would eventually allow her to win over front-runner Adrian despite having a far weaker team. She had an especially close, borderline flirtatious relationship with Malcolm, and got along well with Isabel and Pani, while having a dislike towards Nobert for his sexist attitude and Billy for his arrogance and poor performances, and having a much more notable feud with Olivia due to her abrasive and rude attitude, which came to a head when Olivia attempted to sabotage Heather's finale.

## Season 1

### Episode 1

The twelve contestants arrived in Hell's Kitchen on a bus and were greeted by Jean-Philippe. During the ride, Heather stated she was known as the little girl who had to bite, claw, and scratch her way to where she was now, but she wasn't willing give up without a fight. When the wall crashed down, revealing the audience, she stated that it was one hell of a way to make an entrance, although lamented the lack of explosions.

During the signature dish challenge, she made an olive oil poached octopus and seaweed salad on a bed of squid ink rice, topped with grapefruit and pomegranate, saying it was something that represented her as a person, being very out of the box. It was criticized for being underwhelming, scoring a 2 out of 5.

The red team lost the challenge 17-19, and were punished by sowing up damaged chef jackets and cleaning the dining room. During the punishment, she tried to calm down the bickering red team, and when the jackets arrived, she wondered if she could see herself in any of them. When encountering the sous chefs, she called Sous Chef Skullcrusher based, and while studying the menu, she bonded with Isabel about their origins, and later admitted she was bisexual and knew how to do knife tricks, but admitted she did them to look cool.

During dinner service, Heather was on the dessert station, and when Samantha refused to let Olivia cook one risotto, she reminded her that there were two risotto on order, so Olivia should be able to cook one, and when an argument appeared to start, Heather got them back on track. She would later go to help Pani on the fish station, and was worried that Pani's scallops were over. When they were, she elected to help her out on fish, and when Samantha tried to come over, she told her to stay on apps and continued to communicate for Pani with the apps station. Later, she managed to help finally lead out the first ticket on apps, and later told Samantha she was going too fast, and when the order was not accepted, she told Pani to refire her scallops when ready. She then wondered where she was getting this momentum from, but she was willing to ride it out, and continued working with Pani. Ramsay would then kick the red team out after too many mistakes, which annoyed Heather as they didn't get past apps.

The Red team lost the dinner service, but Gordon named her the "Best of the Worst" for being the only one awake and managing to lead out the first apps order, and was assigned with choosing two nominees. She would then state she was stuck between Pani, Olivia, and Sam. When Sam was incredulous at this, she stated that Sam did not give out proper times, which led to a very bad start.

Heather nominated Pani and Olivia for elimination, and while Ramsay respected the nominees, he also called down Samantha.

### Episode 2

During the Creative Catfish challenge, she was not seen, and she lost the challenge as she did not make the top two on the red team, but was not labeled as having the worst dish on the red team. The red team lost the challenge, and were punished by cleaning the beach, and during the punishment, she was annoyed by a seagull, comparing it Olivia and stating she was tired, pissed off, and wanted to throttle both Olivia and the seagull.

Back in the dorms, she would show off her juggling skills to Korekiyo and Billy. Before service, after Mary stated out loud that they did not like Olivia, Heather said that while she understood, she asked why she had to say it before service, as it was bad juju.

During service, she was on the apps station with Mary. She would manage to communicate with the fish station, and managed to help lead the apps station with very little mistakes. After Olivia messed up the scallops, she wondered if what happened before service got into Olivia's head, but regardless, she continued to help out on the apps with her strong leadership. After Olivia argued with Samantha that there were four strips on order compared to two strips and two halibut, Heather realized that the arguing was taking too long, and told Samantha to refire as the times would not match up. After Samantha's strip was undercooked, Heather was assigned to help her out, and with her help, she managed to help complete the red team's service. They were eventually called in to help the blue team complete their service, with Heather once more taking on a leadership role and managing to help the blue team get their food out. After the blue team was kicked out however, she would manage to lead the remaining red team into completing their order, but after the kitchen came to a standstill, the red team was kicked out as well.

Both teams lost the service, but Heather was named "Best of the Worst" for being the only one awake and her strong leadership. During deliberation, after she suggested Olivia, Olivia would accuse Heather of only sticking around because of favoritism, and Heather would reply by saying she was the only leader there, Isabel and Mary were decent cooks, and Samantha at least could listen.

Heather would select Olivia as her first nominee, and Samantha as her second.

## Post Hell's Kitchen

* She would take up the head chef position, only to eventually depart after two months due to a hostile work environment.
* In an interview, Heather elaborated that she was met with an incredibly hostile work environment and was given very little help overall, and she felt she was essentially bullied out of her job.

## Trivia

* She is the first winner of the spin-off, and first female winner of the spin-off overall.
* She is the first chef in Googlecorn's Hell's Kitchen Roleplay (Spin Off) to be named the "Best of the Worst". She is also the first RP chef to be labeled as the “Best of the Worst” two consecutive times, and second overall, behind Jen (Season 3). She is also the first winner with this distinction.
* She is the first RP chef to lose the final tasting challenge, but win the season.

## Quotes

* "I've pretty much spent my life as the little girl who had to bite and claw and scratch her way to where they are now, but I'm not willing to give up without a fight."
* *(When seeing the wall fall down)* "Holy crap! That's a hell of a way to make an entrance! Although a few explosions would be cool."
* "I have no fucking clue where this side of me came from, but honestly, I'm riding the momentum."
* *(During the beach punishment)* "Ladies and gentlemen, who is tired, pissed off, and wants to throttle two things that look like rats, except one can fly? If you guessed me, you win a prize. The prize? My suffering."
* "Okay...service, it's a new day. Maybe, just FUCKING maybe, we can actually win service for crying out loud."
* *(After losing another challenge)* "We were so, so fucking close to winning, to actually having fun! Olivia actually wasn't hot garbage this time, but once again, something has to go wrong...thanks Billy, you walking sack of failure and misery."
* *(About relationships)* "I talk a lot in the kitchen, I'm a strong leader, but at the end of the day, I'm one hell of a nervous wreck when it comes to relationships...why do you think I have a bi-dar?"
* "I may not like punishments, but if there's one thing I would never do, that's abandon my team. We're like a very dysfunctional family...on several drugs."
* *(While flirting during the crew member challenge) "*This is...awkward, considering Malcolm is nearby...but I want to win, and if I have to whore myself out to win...then I'll take it...."
* *(After being named winner) "*I did it! I can't believe it! I won! This is the greatest feeling in the world! I just...yes...ever since day one, I came here with something to prove, every challenge loss, every service loss, every single set back was just setting me up for greatness, and goddamn, I earned this shit!"