Those of you who are fans of Hell's Kitchen know that the winner of this current seventh season was announced this past week - Holli Ugalde beat Jay Santos to earn the head chef job at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant at the Savoy Grille in London.
Frankly, I love to see a woman prevail in a contest like this. Women have been considered only good enough to be sous chefs too long!
But, the really great thing about this story is that Holli is a "local girl" in our neck of the woods. On the show they stated that she came from Redlands, CA, a city about 15 miles from where I live. But, in our local paper today, the front-page headline was "Beaumont resident new celebrity chef". And, she has been working as a chef in Palm Springs for the 18 months since filming concluded. Who knew? Here is that story.
And the winner celebrated at our local Casino Morongo - what fun! I almost feel like I was there!
BIG congratulations to Holli Ugalde - you done good girl!
Here is the interview with the winner, Holli Ugalde.
Here is the interview with the runner-up, Jay Santos.
