Bad Choices? –
May 3, 2020 – Growing up in rural Colorado, Michael was interested in cooking from an early age, often helping his father in the kitchen. He says it was a way to express himself outside the classroom, where he struggled due to his attention deficit disorder.
He dropped out of high school and went to work in a kitchen.
In 1999, Michael spent two years training to be a chef in London. It was during this period he became fully aware of a chef with a fearsome temper called Gordon Ramsay, who was building a name as one of the world’s best chefs.
“He had this reputation out there of being this badass chef that no one wants to mess with,” Michael recalls.
“I tried for like a year to work with him for free but no-one could get in there, it was really exclusive.”
When he heard about auditions for Hell’s Kitchen through his in-laws, who worked in the industry, Michael decided this would be his best shot at getting close to Ramsay. He applied and went through a rigorous process of interviews and tests. Eventually, he was told he had made the final 12.
