Chef
Jonny G

Where my head was at

Coming off the chopping block, I had one goal: stay off it. I'd survived, but now everybody knew my name had been up there. So my plan for the day was simple. Keep my head down, don't stir anything up, cook good food and let the pizza do the talking. Background mode, activated.

And I'll be honest, I was still a little confused about the vote. I had a great service and still got nominated. Chef always says he wants the two worst. If I'm one of the worst on this team, we must be stacked with all-stars. So let's go prove it.

The challenge: how it actually worked

They rolled out what felt like a million boxes. Basically a pizza game show. Here's how it worked, because TV moves fast:

• The boxes: Each color was a category: meat, dairy, cheese and a wild card. Most boxes had an ingredient inside. Some were completely empty, and you had no idea which ones until you opened them. Talk about suspense.
• The crusts: There were four or five crust options back in the kitchen, and there was no team strategy. We all just sprinted back and grabbed one. That's why Gabe was wishing he'd picked up spinach. He didn't know he was getting a spinach crust until it was too late. Live and learn, Gabe.
• The rules: Every pizza had to have the meat plus five more ingredients, and whatever you picked had to go on the pizza. No sneaking things back.

My pizza

Mine had shrimp, Calabrian chilies, pickled kale, pickled mushrooms and, at the very last second, caviar. I grabbed buffalo sauce first, then put it back. I already had heat from the Calabrian chilies, and I'm not a big straight-buffalo-sauce guy anyway. Then with 15 seconds left, I spotted the caviar and put it on the board.

And this wasn't cheap caviar. We're talking around $400 for a couple ounces. When you see $400 caviar, you put it on the pizza. No, I didn't cook it. I took it straight out of the jar and sprinkled it on top at the end. I didn't use a ton, so you could barely tell it was there, and I'm pretty sure I didn't even say "caviar" when I presented. Smooth, Jonny.

I also didn't go Italian style with just a few toppings. I loaded it up the way I like my pizza. If I did it again, I'd keep the shrimp and the caviar, drop the mushrooms and kale, and go simple with goat cheese and a drizzle of hot honey. Shrimp and caviar together give you that fancy, from-the-sea flavor.

The win

We won, and every one of us took home a pizza oven. The nice Ooni one, too, like $850. I haven't fired mine up yet, but when I do, I'm making a better pizza than I did on Hell's Kitchen.

Mya was rolling with us that day, so she won one too, and it came at Miguel's expense. That one was brutal. He went for us, he saw us there with everything, and he didn't get to enjoy any of it. I felt bad, for real. He helped me a lot. Like I've said, whatever happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen, and whatever happens outside the kitchen stays outside. I put grudges aside when it's time to cook.

Oh, and Georgiana tried to get Mya to trade her the pizza oven. Georgie, you didn't even win!

Spa day

Our reward was a spa day, and it was hilarious. There were regular people already swimming in the pool, minding their business, and here comes the whole Hell's Kitchen crew with all these cameras. They all got out of the pool and just stood there watching us swim and talk. It's an indoor pool, so everything echoes, and we could hear every whisper: "What the heck?"

Mya kept joking that those people had no clue this was Hell's Kitchen. To them, it's just eight guys and one girl hanging out in a hot tub. She's a total tomboy, so she fit right in with us. Honestly, I think she would've rather been on blue. The other guys kept trying to get the inside scoop on red team from her, which was funny to me, because I already hung out with Mya and knew most of it.

Dinner service, from my station

I was on apps, and yes, those are my bandaged fingers making another cameo. They keep showing it a little at a time. I think the reason it doesn't get a whole storyline is that I don't complain about it. The less you complain, the less they show. Meanwhile, you could hear the red kitchen from our side. Just saying.

Blue had a smooth night. Over on red, it was a rough night for one of the VIPs. Matt barely got any food, and the one pizza he did get came with a hair in it. Somebody tighten up that bandana!

Best part of the night: after service we got to talk with Doug E. Fresh. He told all of us to come see him in New York, and we were all like, yeah, yeah, we'll be there. Will we actually see Doug E. Fresh in New York anytime soon? We'll see. But it was a really cool conversation.

Joy going home

I'll be honest, I wanted her gone sooner. She said she could cook and said she had flavor, but she never really proved it, and I think her attitude brought the red team down. She didn't talk a lot, but when she did it came out aggressive, and that didn't sit right with people like Nadia. I wasn't too worried when she left. Silent, but annoying.

The morning it blew up

The plantation wedding jokes didn't stop. The next morning everybody's getting ready for the day, and the guys are still joking about it. Mike's talking about having Black friends, and Miguel says he better hope they don't point him out as a racist. I walk by and ask what they're joking about. "We're just joking." Well, I'm not joking.

I brought up that Miguel never really apologized the day before. "I'm sorry for how this made you feel" isn't an apology. So I gave him the chance to apologize in front of everybody. He wanted to talk in private. Nah. You made the jokes in front of everybody, you can apologize in front of everybody.

It got heated, and he wasn't listening, so I told him we're stopping here and I walked away. I believe that was the right call. If I'd stayed, it could've ended wrong. Walking away cleared my head, and I realized all this side drama is part of the show. If I'm going to win this, I don't want to be part of it. From there, my goal was to cook and stay out of the drama.

I went outside and talked to Nadia, Georgiana and Mya. My team kind of joined in on the joking instead of shutting it down, and I told the girls straight up: I trust y'all more than my own team.

The challenge: what you saw vs. what it felt like

Protein relay! We had to identify the protein in each dish. We didn't see what the girls did, but when we came in we saw their time, and after watching the rest of our team go, I knew we had four or five minutes to spare. That's a great feeling. If we'd had to go first and then watch, it would've been way more stressful.

I paired up with my boy Valentin. He's from Argentina, I'm Caribbean. Two people from two different places? We about to rock. The plate was confusing: sauce, veg, a meatball, all kinds of stuff. So we skipped everything else and went straight for the protein.

• Protein 1: That meatball was dry. I'm talking Popeye's biscuit dry. One bite and I'm thinking, wait, I know this. This tastes like Thanksgiving. Turkey! Val grabbed sea bream, a white fish, and we got one right. I looked at him: bro, I'm confident it's turkey. He was too.
• Protein 2: Now we know the other one is a white fish. Tilapia? Snapper? Trout? My Argentinian brother picks up the red snapper. And it WAS red snapper. Yes, sir!

Me and Val were sprinting the whole time. Everybody else was strolling, la la la. When we got it right, it felt like we won the Super Bowl, and the girls behind us were staring us down like, ain't no way these boys are celebrating like that. Come on. It's Hell's Kitchen. You win, you celebrate!

HexClad, baby!

Going in, a HexClad set was the prize I wanted most. I'd watched the show, I knew they gave it away, and I wanted it bad. And it wasn't just a couple of pans. Full set: around 15 pans with lids, knives, steak knives, a cutting board, even these automatic salt and pepper shakers that sense when they're over your food. Fancy!

I looked it all up afterward and it's easily a couple thousand dollars of stuff. After cooking with them in there, I'm convinced they're the best pans in the world. It's like nonstick, stainless steel and carbon steel all in one. I can't wait to use them. Does red team have those? Nope. Just saying.

Bubble soccer

Then we got to play bubble soccer, and remember, I'm not happy with blue team right now. You're telling me I get to bump people as hard as I want and nobody gets hurt? I've played soccer all my life, but I'll be honest, I was there to bump. Teammate or not, if you're in front of me, you're getting bumped.

Did Miguel get a little extra? Oh, yeah. The ball was nowhere to be found and I was headhunting. Aiden got bumped. Even Big Mike got launched. We played for about an hour, everybody's drenched and wants to be done, and I'm like, nah, let's keep playing.

Dinner service, from my station

Chef put somebody on a station by themselves for the first time, and it was me on meat. The night before, meat had two people and they were sending up raw chicken and raw lamb. I'm doing it alone. And I'm rocking it. NY strips coming out great, Wellingtons coming out great, everything.

Solo is hard because there's nobody to track the little things. Four different meats, all different temps and cook times. At one point I had two chickens in the oven, two NY strips on the flat top, and I'm pulling a Wellington to check the temp. With two people, one of you keeps track. Alone, you can't forget anything.

Then we got one ticket where garnish wasn't ready, and meat backed up. I needed help, and Miguel was free since apps were done, so I made him the Wellington guy. I thought delegating was being a leader. Looking back, I should've checked on him more. I go check, and the Wellington is at 80 degrees.

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking: are you trying to sabotage me? My Wellingtons were perfect all night. Same oven, same temp. And this is the same day we got into it. I'm not saying he did. It just went through my head.

Chef calls for the Wellingtons. "Chef, we need one more minute." One Wellington, two or three minutes late. It went back out perfect. But we lost service.

The vote

Back at the dorm, everybody knew Aiden was one of the nominees. Nobody wanted to say the second name, so I got the conversation started. I was on Aiden and honestly didn't know who else, because I felt like the rest of us cooked well. Then Dylan said, "I'm voting Aiden, but we need two, so I'm voting Jonny G," and it snowballed from there.

Being named first stung, especially after a service I was proud of. And while they were nominating me, they kept telling me I did a great job. I'm still laughing about that one. If it were me, I would've put up one name and told Chef we couldn't come up with a second.

On the chopping block

Somebody had already gone home for saying the wrong thing up there, so I knew I just had to say the right things. When Chef asked about the Wellingtons, I said I passed it on and didn't take full responsibility. In my head I'm like, bro, that's not even the whole story. But I wasn't going to stand up there blaming Miguel. I'd rather own it. My mistake wasn't as bad as Aiden's, so I figured it was more 80-20 than 50-50.

Then Chef says, "Aiden." And pauses. My heart sank. I've watched this show for 20-plus seasons. Usually that means that person stays and the other one hands over the jacket. That was the most nervous I've ever been up there.

Owning My Moment

Oh man, not again. Somebody cue up a Drake song, because that should be the caption on this one.

There's been a little something going on. Everybody's telling me I overreacted. I need to apologize to Miguel. I need to do this, I need to do that. And look, maybe y'all are right. But that's in the past now, and I'm focused on what's next.

I've been real quiet, just watching what everybody's saying. I see the love and I see the criticism, and I appreciate all of it. If you've got strong feelings about me, that means you're watching and you care, and I don't take that for granted.

And guess what? Jonny G is still in. You're going to see some more. Haha!

Haitian Sensation, out.

What Chef taught me this week

Outside of handling pressure? Be yourself. Be honest. Be truthful about who you are. That's what he really cares about.

I was up on the chopping block, and I could've made any excuse or thrown somebody under the bus. I didn't. I owned it. Chef Ramsay talked to us about that before, and I used it. I think he saw that I used what he taught us. That's what I'm taking away from this week. Peace.

Beer pong for ingredients

Cheerleaders and a marching band came running into the kitchen, and the next thing you know, we're playing beer pong for our ingredients. Only on Hell's Kitchen. Blue went first, and I landed rum.

That was on purpose. Rum is big in Haiti. Rhum Barbancourt is basically our national spirit, so rum and I go way back. The rum they had wasn't Barbancourt, it was a fancy, expensive brand, so the flavor was a little different. But rum is rum. I knew exactly what I was working with.

Calling out Georgiana

Then we got to pick who we'd go up against, and I already knew: Georgiana. We'd had this respectful beef going since the punishment pass challenge, when I told her I would've beat her, and now it was time to back up the trash talk.

She picked the protein: hanger steak. I'm thinking, oh, I see you. You just gave me a leg up. Hanger steak and rum? That's my wheelhouse. And yeah, I had a little cocky attitude about it. That confidence went a little too far.

The judging

Chef starts talking about my dish, how everything goes together, how it's similar to Georgiana's. In my head I'm like, yeah, Georgie, you thought he was about to call this garbage, huh? Then he says, "But."

I've watched this show forever. He doesn't say "but" for no reason. Then he says there's a difference, and I already know: if mine was better, he would've just said mine was better. My steak was under.

What really happened with that steak

Here's the inside scoop. My hanger had a big piece of sinew running right through the middle. You can actually see it on TV, and Georgiana saw it when we were up there. Sinew is tough connective tissue, and when it runs through the center of a steak, the middle cooks slower than the rest.

I knew it was there, so I plated the outside pieces and covered the rest with sauce. Chef tasted the outside and it was fine. Then he went digging into the middle. Chef does not miss.

Mike told me it needed more time, but I'd already sliced it with three or four minutes left. Put a sliced steak back in the oven and it dries out, then it doesn't get to rest and bleeds all over the plate. So I went with my gut. Lesson learned: cook it a little longer before you ever cut it. If you're noticing a pattern by now, yeah. Patience, Jonny.

The punishment

We lost, and that one stung. I lost to Georgiana and cost us the challenge. Everybody was thinking, he got hanger steak, he got the six-seven, he's a lock. I had all that pressure and I pooped the bed.

So while red team was out tubing, doing everything I wanted to do, we were up overnight deveining shrimp. Shrimp poop. It's literally shrimp poop. It stinks, it smells like nasty seafood, and the whole time I'm thinking: if I'd beaten Georgiana, I'd be on a tube right now. How fun.

Elimination

Over on red, Mya nominated herself, and I told her that's a risky move. We've both watched the show. Putting yourself up puts a target on your back. She told me her team wasn't talking, and she'd rather step up as a leader than stay quiet. I respect that. I gave her my two cents and let her play her own cards.

I knew Chef wasn't going to let that stand, and sure enough, he called Haley up instead. Oh snap. I honestly thought Haley was going home.

It was Jeyda. She was always asking me to quiz her on the menu, and we studied together the night before service. She was there to grow, she took criticism well, and you could tell Chef saw that when she left.

The wake-up call

I'm an early bird. I like getting up early no matter what, and Hell's Kitchen didn't change that. I was up way before everybody, breakfast done, ready for the day, just sitting there chilling.

Then two lifeguards come barging in yelling for everybody to get up, and of course I joined right in: "Get up! Everybody get up!" You can kind of hear me in the background. Everybody else was scrambling to get ready in 10 or 15 minutes, girls worried about their makeup, and I'm like, come on, we got to go. I'd been up for an hour. I was just excited. We're going swimming!

Great Wolf Lodge

We hit Great Wolf Lodge! On TV it looks like we were there for 10 minutes, and honestly it was quick. There were a lot of us, so groups took turns, and we got to go down a couple more slides after the challenge part. But I can officially say I went to Great Wolf Lodge on Hell's Kitchen. That's crazy.

Sliders

Then sliders. My protein was beef, and my add-on was something like an apricot-mango jam with a hot pepper, so we were going sweet and spicy. It was a pretty simple combo, so the question was how to make it not simple. I made the jam and a mushroom chimichurri. I'm not a big burger guy, and I tend to go wild with flavors, so I tried to keep this one under control.

Paul said mine was a little chewy. Everybody else liked it, so I'm chalking that up to a weird bite. I was hoping me and Gabe would both get a point there. If I did it again, I'd skip the mushrooms.

Go-karts

We won, and go-karting was lit. Think Craig's Cruisers times ten. My kart was going around 40 miles an hour, the track had high and low levels, and we had helmets on, so every bump felt like a real crash.

I was in the lead with Val and Aiden right behind me, and then somebody, I couldn't even tell who with the helmets on, side-swiped me and spun me out. I finished fourth. Fastest lap times every single time, and I got fourth. I'm still a little salty about that one.

Dinner service

This one was weird for me. I spent service out in the dining room, not on the line, and blue got kicked out of the kitchen. I'm sitting out there thinking, I'm out of the kitchen for one night and y'all forget how to cook? I guess I'm the glue. We'd whooped them the day before, so I was surprised. Maybe the go-karts got to us. Maybe it was the wrong people on the wrong stations. A lot of pork and lamb came back raw.

Back with the guys, I'm asking what happened, because from the dining room I just heard a bunch of fish this and that. Then they're talking nominations and I'm asking, do I get a vote? I'm part of the team. They weren't happy about it, but I voted off what I heard: Miguel, because he's the one who got us kicked out, and Diego, because the fish kept getting messed up. It wasn't about who I wanted gone. It was my team, so I should get an opinion.

Standing up there, I was praying Chef wouldn't call on me to say who we nominated. The guys were already mad I got a vote. Honestly, it was kind of a relief too. This early in the competition, whoever we lost was never going to win it anyway.

Where my head was at

This one picks up with Chef calling everybody back in and singling out Sandra and Valentin for their signature dishes. I really thought they were about to go home on day one. I'm thinking, no way, Chef, you're sending them home day one because they got a two? I was nervous for them. They didn't go home.

We also got the menu books early. Normally you'd get them right before dinner service, after the challenge. This time we got them the night before, so blue team studied hard. It's the same menu every week, except the tableside and any specials they add.

The challenge

Then Chef looked up and a giant box dropped from the ceiling. We all saw him look up, saw something drop, and it looked like a bunch of rocks. I thought it was about to smack us in the face.

• Scallops: Easy for me. I've cooked a lot of scallops. Get them nicely done, petite salad up front, and I was confident. Through to round two.
• Carbonara: I'm Haitian. I don't cook pasta. It's not my go-to, so my expertise went out the window and it was all speed. I was fourth up there and thought I was done, then I saw somebody ahead of me run back. Somebody had grabbed the truffle shaver, and there were only a couple in the kitchen, so I microplaned the black truffle instead. It looked like pepper. I didn't even put pepper in it. Chef goes, "Jonny, that's a lot of pepper." Chef, that's not pepper. It's the truffle. He tasted it, and I was through.
• Lobster risotto: Only one person could win this one, and two people were already up there before me. So I'm thinking, I don't care if it's raw, I just got to go. I mixed everything, pulled the lobster off the stick barehanded and put it on the risotto. Standing in line, touching the lobster, I'm thinking, this is probably not done. Should I go back? Mike went back. Miles went back. I was already up there, so I stayed to see. Chef cut it. Raw. I'm cooked. I battled, but I should've just waited a little longer.

Where the rivalry started

Afterward I asked Georgiana what she messed up on. The lobster. Me too! I told her, "I knew I would've beat you if I was up there." She said, "Yeah, right." And that's how our friendly rivalry was born. It looks like beef on TV, but it's all love.

Service and elimination

Day one, it felt like getting thrown to the wolves: people you've never worked with, tools you've never used, food you've never cooked. That's where you see who's ready and who's just there to have fun. Red team went from flip-flops to service not knowing how to separate an egg. Blue wasn't perfect, but enough of us were ready, and we won. If you're really a chef, you adapt.

Sitting in elimination is nerve-wracking even when you're safe. On TV you don't notice, but there are something like 15 huge cameras pointed at everybody, the lights are dim and the spotlights are on you. It feels like a courtroom. We're about five feet from Chef, and he's looking back and forth at us. I'm thinking, is he about to call one of us up and ask who should go home?

There's no commercial break in real life, either. Just a pause, a good five or ten seconds, before he says the name. Sitting there, I'm like, oh, this is what it actually feels like. Losing somebody that early made the competition real. Anybody can go home now. We had to be on our A game.

Getting there

Up to this point, everything had been online and over Zoom. I hadn't met a single person. So I fly into Connecticut, get off the plane and get a text from a random guy telling me where to meet him and when. I show up and he goes, "Are you Jonny G?" Uh, yeah? Who are you? "I'm with Hell's Kitchen. Just come with me."

He puts me and all my luggage in an Uber. An hour-and-45-minute Uber. I ask if he's coming with me. Nope! The driver drops me off at the wrong hotel, and I have no idea. I'm sitting in the lobby for an hour, waiting to get picked up, because they told me to meet them there.

Then I get a call from a guy named Justin. "Jonny G, where are you? We've been waiting an hour. Everybody's here. You're the last one!" I'm like, I've been waiting for y'all for an hour! I tell him I'm at the Peacock. "The where?" It was the Pequot. I was 30 minutes away, so they had to come get me. At that point I'm half convinced the whole thing is a prank. Great start, Jonny.

Lockdown

Then it's two days at a hotel where we can't see any of the other contestants. I'm in my room most of the day with no phone, watching the same show on repeat. Cabin fever is real.

Then one morning: "Alright, we're leaving. We're going to Hell's Kitchen. No talking." For two hours, nobody could say a word. I'm sitting with Gabe, Aiden, Valentin and others, and I don't even know their names yet, and I can't ask! Aiden tried to sneak in a little cough and an "excuse me," and the producers shut it down instantly. "Nope, none of that."

That's the bus ride you saw on TV. We went straight off the bus into the welcome and then right into the kitchen for signature dishes.

Signature dish

My dish came straight from my Haitian background. Your signature dish shows people who you are, so I wanted it to say two things right away: me as a chef, and my heritage. It was a dish I'd made before. I'd made the steak and the sauce, so I knew the flavor profile. All the stress about what to cook went out the window, and the only thing left was making it perfect. Once I was tasting everything and it was turning out perfect, I thought, there's no way I lose.

I knew it was different from everybody else's. One, nobody else was Haitian. Two, nobody else did Caribbean food. Three, nobody else was using the ingredients I was using. I was hoping for a high 4, or at least a 5. Chef gave me a six-seven. Yeah, like the kids say. He was making the joke, and I was not expecting that.

That meant a lot. On the bus, everybody was talking about where they came from: executive chef, sous chef, head chef. I've been a banquet chef, a line cook and a home chef. For somebody with Gordon Ramsay's accolades to give me one of the best scores in the room told me where I came from doesn't matter. What I can cook does. So I decided I'm just going to cook what I know. Everybody else was going crazy with their dishes. I'm going to do jerk, simple home food, and elevate it. That's where I get to make it fancy.

Dorm life

When we got to the dorm, our bags were already there. I saw a room with four beds and a room with five, and there was no way I was going in the five. I ran straight to the four-bed room, claimed the bed farthest from the door and had my stuff unpacked while everybody else was still doing introductions.

Night one was an adventure. Nobody tells you anything. We couldn't figure out how to turn off the lights or the clocks. There's all this food and groceries, and we're looking at each other like, are we allowed to eat this? We had mics on, so they heard everything, and a sous chef popped in: "Yes, you can eat all of it. It's all for you." Very weird. Very Hell's Kitchen.

The reward

We won, so we got to hang out with past winners, Chef Rock included. I wanted to hear the path they took to win. What I noticed is that none of them gave up. They all had days where it was hard, where they didn't get a point for their team or didn't have their best service, and they kept going. You might not be the best chef or the best leader in the room, but if you don't give up, Chef notices.

The other big one was protect your rest. Get your alone time and put your health first. Instead of being in a conversation until 2 a.m., go to sleep at 11:30, before everybody else. Be smart.