Lilburn resident could win ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ on Fox
TV PREVIEW
“Hell’s Kitchen,” 9 p.m. Tuesday, Fox
Lilburn resident Torrece "T" Gregoire came on the 14th season of "Hell's Kitchen" with a determination not to get flustered by Gordon Ramsay's thunderous ways and to avoid needless confrontations with other cooks.
She pulled off both with aplomb, offering energy, humor and grace, as well as admirable cooking skills and kitchen management. She is now in the finals, which air at 9 Tuesday night. She could pocket $250,000 and win a job at Caesars Atlantic City.
The show was taped more than 18 months ago so Gregoire has had to keep whether she had won to herself except for her closest family members, including her girlfriend and her daughter, both of whom appeared in the episode that aired last week.
Gregoire enters the season 14 finale as an acknowledged underdog against Roanoke, Va., executive chef Meghan Gill, a calm, steady force in the kitchen.
“She has slightly more experience than I do,” said Gregoire, who is 32.
Soon after the season began airing on Fox in March, Gregoire landed her first executive chef job at Lilburn’s Three Blind Mice, which fashions itself as a Buckhead-style craft bar serving American regional cuisine with a French twist.
“It’s off the beaten path,” she said. “It’s industrial but vintage and classy at the same time.”
Carla Shannon, one of Three Blind Mice’s owners, said she met Gregoire by happenstance after Gregoire judged the Tucker Chili Cook Off in March. She found Gregoire’s ebullient personality and food fit the needs of the 5-year old restaurant. Plus, she had good references, having worked at Rathbun’s, the St. Regis Hotel and Sea Island.
“It was intriguing to me and the rest of the ownership from a marketing standpoint that she was on this show, but that wasn’t the deciding factor” to hire her, Shannon said.
Gregoire said her time on “Hell’s Kitchen” in 2013 matured her in many ways. She learned teamwork. (“Before this, it was all about me, me, me.”) She appreciated Ramsay’s attention to detail, ensuring that every dish that comes out of the kitchen is to his exacting standards. And the weekly challenges forced her to think on her feet.
“It allowed me to basically deconstruct food faster than I ever had,” Gregoire said. “I had to raise the bar and excel.”
On the show, the pressures of the competition combined with fatigue and a verbal ordering system (as opposed to written tickets) provide plenty of opportunities for classic “Hell’s Kitchen” screw-ups. But Gregoire rarely messed up as she watched fellow castmates fall one by one.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
