Posts Tagged ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

Season 7 “Hell’s Kitchen” contestant and chef, Jason Santos, is celebrating the first year of opening his own successful restaurant, Blue Inc., by revisiting the show that made him famous. Tonight, Santos will be hosting a reunion of fellow contestants from season 6 and 7 of the popular Fox cooking competition, including chefs Salvator Coppola, Fran Waters-Klier, Jim McGloin, and Ed Battaglia. The event, called “ A Night Back in Hell’s Kitchen,” will feature a meet and greet with the chefs, passed appetizers created by the former contestants, craft cocktails, and a special viewing of the current season of the show. Special guests are invited for an exclusive three-course dinner prior to the cocktail hour, and all festivities will be taking place at Santos’s restaurant in the Financial District.

Santos, a native of Medford, Massachusetts, appeared on the show in 2010, eventually making it all the way to the finals, before losing to chef Scott Leibfried. After returning to his job as head chef at Gargoyles in Somerville, Santos decided to strike out on his own, and created Blue Inc. A week before the restaurant was set to open last summer, chef and curmudgeonly host of “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gordon Ramsay, traveled to Boston to surprise the runner-up, check out the new spot, and wish him well. Any patron who visits Blue Inc., which is so named for the color of Santos’s hair, will find that clips of season 7 of “Hell’s Kitchen” regularly plays on the TVs behind the restaurant bar, and a framed, autographed picture of Ramsay hangs by the front entrance.

He might not have won the title, but that doesn’t mean Jason Santos is burying his head in the sand.

The former “Hell’s Kitchen” season 7 contestant, who was one step away from winning it all on the Fox reality show, has instead left his post at Cambridge’s Gargoyles on the Square to venture out on his own. Blue Inc., which opened on the evening of Monday, July 11, in the Financial District overlooking the Greenway, takes over the former Lobby Bar and Kitchen space, and is now serving a variety of creative culinary treats and delicious libations. Dine on delectable bites like lobster and summer truffle soup, calamari spaghetti with squid puffs, and fried chicken with habanero barbecue syrup, or sip sumptuous cocktails like the Fat Boyz Margarita, Chilled Chocolate Afro Puff, or the The Anorexic Model.

Santos was not alone in getting his project off the ground. Turning to his other TV connections, the chef called upon Taniya Nayak, host and designer of HGTV’s “Designed to Sell” and “Destination Design”. Nayak, a Milton, MA resident, can be found on other HGTV shows like “Showdown”, “Bang for Your Buck”, and on the Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible”, where she helps chef Robert Irvine to renovate a failing restaurant in under 24 hours. The woman certainly knows her stuff, as the space was still in shambles only one week before opening.

At the end of January, at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Connecticut, the Sun Winefest 2011 event will be featuring a number of TV culinary personalities from a number of your favorite cooking shows. These TV stars, who also happen to be amazing chefs and restauranteurs, will be taking part in a number of food and wine activities, tastings, and cooking demonstrations. The most notable names to be participating include Bobby Flay , Robert Irvine, Donatella Arpaia, Andy Husbands, of Boston’s own Tremont 647, and Todd English, who recently helped open a new cupcake shop on Charles Street. Many of these stars, such as Flay (“Throwdown,” “Iron Chef”) and Irvine (“Dinner, Impossible”) have appeared numerous times of the Food Network as hosts or food judges. Others, like English and Arpaia, have also made appearances on Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Husbands is best known for appearing on season 6 of Fox’s hit show starring Gordon Ramsay, “Hell’s Kitchen,” placing 8th out of 17 contestants.

Tickets for the Sun Winefest can be purchased through their website. Packages are available for either the entire weekend, or for individual events, though some events are already sold out, please check the website for details. The event runs January 28th-30th at the Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.

If you’ve got experience in the kitchen–as a caterer, cook, chef, or other culinary professional, its time you’ve gone through “Hell.” The now infamous series, “Hell’s Kitchen,” starring the always biting Gordon Ramsay, will be holding an open casting at the restaurant Dante in Cambridge on Wednesday, November 17 from 10AM to 2PM. Though Ramsay himself will not be in attendance, the show’s casting directors will, and will be looking for contestants to be on point in a number of areas.

Challengers be warned–in addition to being a master in the kitchen and camera-ready, you’ll have to have the guts to face verbal obliteration by Chef Ramsay on a daily basis. Boston-based chefs like Andy Husbands of Tremont 647 and Jason Santos of Gargoyles on the Square have both made recent appearances on the show, though with varying degrees of success.

“Hell’s Kitchen” is currently in its 8th season and airs on the Fox network. Unlike his newer show, “Master Chef,” which recently held auditions in Cambridge also, Ramsay expects “Hell’s Kitchen” contestants to be somewhat seasoned culinary professionals.

Interested contestants should be over 21, and arrive with their resume at the restaurant in person during the specified hours. Dante is located at 40 Edwin H. Boulevard in Cambridge, MA. For more details on the show, check out the Hell’s Kitchen website; for more details about the casting session, call 310.591.6439.

★ Dorchester born Mark Wahlberg gets career advice from his Catholic priest.

★ Ann Curry commits major error in her Wheaton College commencement address.

★ Celeb sightings around Boston and New England, a la the Boston Herald.

★ Friendly’s invites Conan O’Brien to come grab a special “Cone-an” when he comes to Boston on his comedy tour.

★ Rock metal legend Ronnie James Dio of Portsmouth, NH, passes away.

★ Local chefs Jason Santos of Gargoyles on the Square and Benjamin Knack of Sel de la Terre compete on the new season of “Hell’s Kitchen”, debuting June 1 on Fox.

★ Come to McFadden’s every Wednesday night to watch MTV’s “Fresh Meat” with Vinny from the show and C.T. from “The Real World: Paris”.

★ Two Boston Globe videos win regional Emmys.

★ Filming on a jet plane; Worcester Airport selected for use in the next Tom Cruise movie.

★ Speaking of, Wichita starts shooting September 15, get your star-sighting binoculars out!

★ Even though he was on “Hell’s Kitchen”, he somehow got chopped; Andy Husbands talks about his stint on the show.

★ The local NBC affiliate highlights Connecticut’s homegrown celebrities.

★ Guess the celebrity Massachusetts connection in this quiz!

★ This Charlie’s Angel is earning her wings: Cameron Diaz helps the Celtics serve the Boston community on 9/11.

★ Jennifer Garner brings her little Violet around Boston.

★ The Improper Bostonian’s cover boy, and Boston son, Eli Roth, talks Tarantino’s latest.

★ Hard Day’s Knight: Sir Paul McCartney rocks it out of Fenway Park.

★ Stuff Boston talks to Andy Husbands about what its like in Hell.

★ Jake Gyllenhaal gets chased by over a 1,000 people on Martha’s Vineyard.

★“The Jerry Springer Show” finally brings some class to Connecticut.

★ Julia Child’s editor discusses her 6’2” discovery.

Head Chef Andy Husbands of swank eatery Tremont 647 made his national TV debut last night on Fox’s newest season of their hit reality series, “Hell’s Kitchen”. As a contestant, Husbands got put through the paces by internationally renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay, a surly curmudgeon of a man, known for his foul mouth and amazing food. The 2-hour premiere of season six featured eight male and eight female contestants, all culinary minds from across the country, engaging in challenges that test their creativity, professionalism, and taste palettes. Though Husbands was nominated for elimination, it was not revealed who would be leaving the show this week, as the final scene featured a fellow chef losing his cool and challenging Ramsay to a physical altercation.

While Husbands is not at liberty to discuss any secrets of the show, he is featuring a weekly special at his restaurant throughout the length of his stint. Every Monday at Tremont 647, diners can sample competition menu items featured on the show, then view the latest episode, followed by a live commentary with Husbands and other guest chefs featured on the show. The eventual winner of the show will win a head chef position at Araxi in Whistler, BC. As the author of his own cookbook, Fearless Chef, we’ll all have to wait and see if this Boston boy can take the heat.