Quogue Chef to appear on season 5 of Hell's Kitchen

East End residents can watch one of their own prep all the ingredients for a taste of stardom when season five of “Hell’s Kitchen” premieres on the Fox network tonight, Thursday, January 29, at 9 p.m.

Robert Hesse, a longtime resident of Quogue and the executive chef at the Q Restaurant East, will appear as a contestant on the unscripted Fox series, hosted by the world renowned and often sharp-tongued chef, Gordon Ramsey.

Sixteen chefs will be vying for Mr. Ramsey’s attention and the grand prize: a head chef position at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Each week, the chefs will take on Mr. Ramsey’s culinary challenges. If they do not measure up, they will have to face Chef Ramsay’s wrath. Those who do not make the cut will be sent home. At the season’s end, only one contestant will remain, battle tested and ready to take the reins at the Borgata.

Mr. Hesse said that looking back on the experience, his favorite part of being a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen was dealing with Mr. Ramsey in the flesh. “What you see on TV is what you get,” he said in a phone interview on Monday. “His bark is definitely as bad as his bite.”

Although he said that the star chef was at times difficult to deal with, in the end his temperament forced all the participants to become better chefs. “After a while you realize he is not picking on you,” Mr. Hesse said. “He pushed you to the edge, then shoved you off to see if you could fly.”

“It’s like culinary boot camp,” he continued. “They break you down.”

Mr. Hesse said that he is now a 
better chef because of his experience
 on the show.

When he left his position as a sous chef at Q East to appear on the reality series, he was not certain if there would be a job waiting for him upon his return. But after he returned to Quogue, he was offered the executive chef position at the restaurant and has worked there ever since. No one will know how he fared on the show, or whether or not he will be taking a job in Atlantic City, until the series completes its run.

In 2007, Mr. Hesse and his fiancée, Jamie Lee, were on the verge of tying the knot when he learned that he had been chosen as a contestant for “Hell’s Kitchen.” He was so committed to winning the grand prize that he postponed his wedding at the last minute.

“I had to scramble around and cancel everything,” he said, adding that he and Jamie Lee had to “tell all of our guests that ‘we’re still in love, we’re not breaking up, but we can’t tell you why.’”

The two were married shortly after the show wrapped.

He said Jamie Lee stood by him even when it was uncertain whether or not he would have a job at the end of 
filming “Hell’s Kitchen.”

“My wife was 100 percent behind me,” he said. “She wouldn’t want a man who wouldn’t want to live his dream.”

One of the biggest challenges facing the chef was tied to his robust size. At nearly 400 pounds, he said that some people doubt his abilities when they first lay eyes on him. But he said that being big does not mean he can’t zip around a kitchen: “I have dancing feet,” he said.

The Quogue chef said he has had a lifelong passion for cooking and became a professional chef nearly 13 years ago. “Other kids were watching television and playing outside,” he said. “I was always in the kitchen with my mom and grandmother.” Mr. Hesse turned his passion into a career and enrolled in the Academy Culinary School located in Lakeland, Florida.

The Quogue native has traveled all around the continental United States, working in restaurants in five star hotels over the years. “I have worked in 22 states,” he said. “I was like a gypsy.”

During his career, Mr. Hesse has also worked at Allie’s Cabin at Vail Resorts in Colorado and at the Patio restaurant located in Westhampton Beach.

In a prerecorded interview, filmed shortly before shooting began, Mr. Hesse said his strategy for winning the grand prize was to “cook my ass off and not piss off Chef Ramsey.”

“My second strategy is to befriend everybody,” he added, “so it makes it harder for them to get rid of me.”

In the taped interview, Mr. Hesse described himself as a man from humble beginnings trying to make his way in the fast-paced fine dining industry.

“I’m a blue collar guy who does white collar food,” Mr. Hesse said. “I’m just an average joe.”

According to Fox publicist Jennifer Sprague, the contestants were asked to keep a low profile and remain tight-lipped after filming the Fox program. “We filmed this in fall 2007,” she said. “They’ve been in hiding, these poor contestants.”

Though Mr. Hesse could not say this week if he won the competition, he said that, regardless, he hopes to make a lasting impression through his network television appearance.

“I’m trying to achieve greatness no matter what,” he said.