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July 31, 2007

Yemola’s run on ‘Kitchen’ is done

Local pastry chef is cut from Fox show, but says it was a great experience.

BLOOMSBURG – Jen Yemola put her head down; she couldn’t even look at the television screen. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to.

Her time at “Hell’s Kitchen” was running out.

To the shock of the viewing audience, Yemola was booted out of “Hell’s Kitchen” on Monday’s episode, ending her chances of becoming the head chef at The Green Valley Ranch and Resort in Las Vegas.

“I got to work with one of the top chefs in the world. I got to cook,” Yemola said exclusively to The Times Leader on Monday night. “I feel so blessed. It’s sad watching, because it’s over, but it’s a beginning for me. It’s a new chapter.”

Yemola, who was at The Inn at Turkey Hill, where she works as a pastry chef, doesn’t know why she was kicked off the show. Neither did her mother, Carol Yemola, of Drums, nor her sister, Chrissy Walck, of Sugar Loaf, who already knew the outcome because they were in Los Angeles with her at the time.

Chef Gordon Ramsey never gave an explanation then or during the episode. Jen Yemola was surprised because her mother, Carol, flew out to Los Angeles to be a guest judge in a cooking competition between the three remaining chefs: Jen Yemola; Rock, a 30-year-old executive chef; and Bonnie, a 26-year-old personal chef and nanny.

Yemola’s take on a fried chicken dish was unanimously chosen the winner of the competition and the prize was that Yemola spent one afternoon with her mother, Ramsey and his mother.

“Jenny’s was really good,” Carol Yemola said exclusively to The Times Leader on Monday night. “I picked it and then immediately said, ‘Please, please, let it be Jenny’s.’ ”

Carol said she didn’t like Rock’s take on spaghetti and meatballs because the meatballs were different sizes and the spaghetti was too tough. She said Bonnie’s version of franks and beans was too dry. After dining at The Lodge Steakhouse, Carol and Jen spent the afternoon shopping for kitchen equipment.

What the episode didn’t air was that Yemola used one-third of her $1,000 gift from Ramsey to buy a knife each as a present to Rock and Bonnie. After a great dinner service the next night, Yemola was surprised to go home.

“I was shocked at the end,” said Jen Yemola, who watched the show with her mother and sister. “I didn’t want to show it on my face. I didn’t want to look cocky.”

When Yemola went backstage after being sent home, she was greeted by her mother and sister. Her sister wasn’t on the air, but was present in case Yemola made it into the final.

Walck, who purchased a new outfit just in case she was on television, had never flown before that. In fact, her second flight was a couple of weeks later to Hawaii for her honeymoon.

“I walked on stage and I had no idea they were still there,” Yemola said. “We were in a private room and I was crying and they were consoling me.”

“We were really, really upset,” Carol Yemola added. “She cried, I cried, Chrissy cried.”

After all was said and done, Chef Maryann, a sous chef on the show, offered Jen Yemola a job. But she declined and went back to The Inn, where maybe one day she will return to the anonymity of being just another pasty chef.

“It was overwhelming sometimes,” Yemola said. “I am happy to come and relax. The worst part was everyone kept asking ‘Did you win’ and saying ‘We’re so proud of you’ and ‘You are representing us well.’ I knew I got cut and I felt like I let them down.”