Hell’s Kitchen stars are opening up about their time on set of the competition show and their experiences with its sharp-tongued host, Gordon Ramsay.

In an exclusive clip from Vice TV’s Dark Side of Reality TV, former contestants — including two winners, Michael Wray and Ariel Malone — look back at their time filming in the intense environment that Ramsay is known for on the series.

Journalist Ivy Knight compares the show to “throwing babies into a lion’s mouth.” Then first-season contestant Elsie Ramos — who finished in fourth place during the show’s debut year in 2005 — claims that “everybody was scared.”

“Let’s just put it that way. Everybody was afraid,” Ramos said. “I did not expect to see that fiery bully.”

“Chefs know how to verbally disembowel people,” added Tek Moore, who finished 12th in 2009’s season six.

Wray, who won the first season of Hell’s Kitchen and a $250,000 prize, spoke about the culture shock when joining the show. “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 said. “They took it personal.”

“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,’” recalled Wray.

Season 15 winner Malone, who appeared on the show in 2016, offered another perspective.

“When you’re in karate class, is your sansei a bully or is he your teacher? It’s the same thing,” she said.

Since its 2005 premiere, Hell’s Kitchen has aired 23 seasons, with its most recent currently on Fox. Ramsay has served as host throughout the last 19 years, and the show itself has earned five Primetime Emmy Award nominations and spawned multiple dining locations of the same name across the U.S.

Ramsay has told PEOPLE that his tougher, onscreen personality is vastly different than what he’s like at home.

“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.”

His six kids with wife, Tana, have helped soften him up at home.

“The kids have brought the most emotion out of me,” said Ramsay. “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.”