Meghan Gill, the executive chef at Stefano’s Italian Kitchen on the City Market, had just left a previous job and figured what the heck – so she applied for a spot on Season 14 for the FOX television reality show “Hell’s Kitchen.” The text message about show casting came to her two hours after she had left her job. Hell’s Kitchen is the show where host and award winning chef Gordon Ramsay barks at 18 contestants (at the start), putting them through a series of grueling challenges as they prepare a variety of dishes.
Much to her surprise, Gill (28) was selected for Hell’s Kitchen and was soon whisked off to the competition in Los Angeles. “It’s a one in a million [opportunity] – you don’t actually think you’re going to get a phone call back,” said Gill, “and I just kind of did it as a shot in the dark.”
She also had to live with the other contestants, vying for the same top chef designation – in an atmosphere Gill said could get testy at times. After all she notes, chefs are a competitive lot. “There were a couple of “tiffs” for lack of a better word between some members of the cast – but we’re chefs, we’re competitive by nature, I think that’s what makes us great though.”
Contractually Gill cannot tip her hand, not able to say how long she lasted on Hell’s Kitchen or even if she was the last chef standing at the end of Season 14, which debuted on Tuesday (March 6) and has already been filmed. As for Ramsay, at least off camera, Gill said he was “super cool …very smart and very purposeful in everything that he does.”
He’s not as terrifying as he appears on the FOX show either said Gill, although there were times when Ramsay was putting the chefs through their paces that she thought, “Oh my goodness. But he wants you to be good at the end of the day,” said the classically trained French cook. During show filming there were basic guidelines on what was to be made and what ingredients could be used; after that creativity was the order of the day. That was what Ramsay was looking for.
“I think it was a surreal experience. When I actually got back home to Roanoke I was like – did that really just happen?” Gill chuckles. She went out to California not expecting anything, determined to just keep working at her craft – but this time as millions of people watched on television. “That was how I got through. I just tried to perform to the best of my ability. Afterwards I would just breathe.”
After it was all over, Gill said she walked away with an experience she can use in her professional career, even back at Stefano’s, which was once part of the now-defunct 202 Market nightclub but now is a standalone bistro. “I think I came back with not just more perceptions about food, but how to manage people.”
Living with 17 strangers in the same business, all vying for the same top prize while a Type-A figure like Ramsay barks orders, “really opens your eyes,” said Gill. “I think it made me a better manager when I got back to Roanoke. My interactions with my staff …I was more aware of people and how they are. I got to see the other side. I saw the impact it would have [when] Gordon Ramsay was yelling at somebody.” Perhaps the Stefano’s staff will see a kindler and gentler Gill in the future – courtesy of Hell’s Kitchen.
By Gene Marrano
