Oh, Hell yeah! Cork chef wins top prize on Ramsay show
A CHEF from Cork who crossed the Atlantic to pursue the American dream is still reeling from being named Top Chef in Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen USA.
Millions of US viewers watched Ryan O’Sullivan claim the title and the €250,000 prize in the early hours yesterday morning.
It was a huge victory for Ryan, a former student of the culinary programme at Munster Technological University.
He cut his cloth in the Maryborough and River Lee hotels in Cork before moving to Florida, where he works at the Country Club at Mirasol. There, he met his wife Jennifer and was talentspotted by the Hell’s Kitchen producers, based on the foodie videos and photos he shares on his Instagram account.
However, he has since revealed that he has had to hold on to the secret of his big win for two years since the hit show was filmed.
He told Goldderby.com: ‘You can’t talk about it at all, and you know what? It’s been harder keeping this secret than it was working for Gordon Ramsay!
‘People know that you were missing of the face of the earth for six or seven weeks, so people ask questions about where you were, and when you say, “Oh, I was doing a TV show”… and then they see you on Hell’s Kitchen and ask how far you got...
‘It’s out now, but it’s still very, very hard for it to sink in. It’s amazing. I always believed in myself, but you know, once the door opened I didn’t believe it, and I still don’t.’
The 30-year-old said it was a big surprise when the show flew in his father from Ireland, who is also a chef, for the taping of the finale – and Ryan was able cook for both his dad and his childhood hero, Ramsay.
Working with the TV chef was a ‘dream come true’, he said.
‘I’ve watched that man’s every move for 20 years, since I was nine, ten or 11,’ he said.
‘It wasn’t Dexter’s Lab or Kenan & Kel on the TV for me, it was cooking shows because that’s what my dad watched. I was interested in them. I was intrigued by them.’
Ryan revealed that while he loved creating ‘finicky’ dishes, he would always choose simple comfort food himself.
‘Give me a bowl of mashed potatoes and gravy and I’m a happy man,’ he laughed.
The high-pressure show, set in the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas, saw 18 hopefuls whittled down to the final three – Ryan, Sammi Tarantino, and Johnathan Benvenuti.
Ryan confessed his initial aim had been not to finish last. He said: ‘[My strategy] was, “Feel it out, see what it’s like, see what the talent is like, play to your strengths, and whatever you do, do not go home first.”’ And when he defeated Benvenuti in the final dinner service, he said, the ‘emotions came pouring out’.