Two Michigan chefs are taking their skills to one of television’s best-known cooking competitions.
Hosted by Gordon Ramsay, “Hell’s Kitchen” puts aspiring chefs through cooking challenges and dinner services in a restaurant created for the show. Season 25 is the first limited to chefs 25 and younger. All 18 contestants are 25 or younger. The men compete on the Blue Team and the women on the Red Team. The season premiered Sept. 24 on Fox.
Jonathan “Jonny G.” Gudino, a 23-year-old Grand Rapids resident originally from Kenscoff, Haiti, is competing on the Blue Team. In the premiere, he earned a perfect 5 out of 5 for his signature dish, a Haitian jerk-spiced hanger steak with Sungold tomato salsa and fried sweet plantains.
“I was thinking it was going to be a bunch of old people,” Gudino said on the show.
Ramsay praised the dish, saying, “I love that you’re playing to your strengths. There is nothing on that plate that doesn’t work.” He joked that it could be a “6 or 7,” then said it was a solid 5.
“I am in disbelief,” Gudino said. “I just had Gordon Ramsay say my steak was perfect. Life-changing for me.” He added, “I’m here to prove that I’m a good chef and I’m here to win.”
Gudino said he works as a banquet chef at ResLife Church. His interest in cooking began in his mother’s kitchen. “My mom loves to cook, and I gravitated to the kitchen with her,” he told Grand Rapids Community College.
Diego Sanchez, 21, is also competing on the Blue Team. He is from Allen Park, where he currently lives. Sanchez earned a perfect 5 out of 5 for his signature dish, which included a soy-honey skirt steak, a jalapeño masa biscuit, chorizo béchamel and pickled tomatillos.
Sanchez said he combined influences from his father’s Mexican family and his mother’s North Carolina family. “I’m definitely taking a risk with these biscuits. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong with them,” he said on the show. “I’m mentally preparing myself to not even have the biscuits on the plate.”
“Biscuits are delicious, by the way,” Ramsay said. He also praised the steak’s cook, saying it was perfect.
In a Blue Team teaser posted to social media, Sanchez talked about making beef Wellingtons. “I don’t want to toot my culinary horn, but I was a boss on those Wellingtons,” he said. After tasting one, Donnie Wahlberg said, “The flavor just explodes.” Sanchez added, “Diego packs a punch with his flavor.”
During the premiere, the Blue Team defeated the Red Team, 36-34. The team’s reward included time with past “Hell’s Kitchen” champions and dinner with Ramsay.
New episodes air Thursdays on Fox and stream the following day on Hulu.
Dining and Cooking