Chef Uri Elbaum competing on season 23 of “Hell’s Kitchen.” Photo: Screenshot
Season 23 of “Hell’s Kitchen” premiered on Fox on Thursday night, and one of the contestants is a Jewish chef from Long Branch, New Jersey, who appeared in the premiere episode wearing a Star of David necklace.
Chef Uri Elbaum — who had a Chabad upbringing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, before moving to the US — also has Star of David tattoos on both arms and a tattoo on his left forearm that says in Hebrew “Ahava,” which means love. The 28-year-old is the executive chef of the kosher restaurants The Butcher’s Steakhouse and Primavera in the Deal, New Jersey, area, and has also cooked on Passover programs.
“It’s a beautiful thing for me that I can make food for my people in kosher restaurants,” Elbaum previously said, as reported by the blog YeahThatsKosher. “What’s the first thing a Jew does before he eats? Makes a bracha [blessing]. What’s the last thing he does before he leaves? Makes a bracha. Having people say a bracha on my food is a great feeling.”
He also said that before participating in season 23 of “Hell’s Kitchen,” “My rabbi told me to both make the Jews watching at home proud of me and to remember that I should be proud to be Jewish.”
For the first time in the history of the show, the new season of “Hell’s Kitchen” was filmed on the east coast and the competitors are all head chefs of their respective restaurants. The competition took place at Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen restaurant inside the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. The winner of season 23 will become head chef of Ramsay’s restaurant in Foxwoods and will also take home a prize of $250,000.
In the premiere episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” on Thursday, Ramsey asked the 18 contestants to create a signature dish in 40 minutes that represented who they are as chefs. Ramsey would then score the dishes on a scale of 1-5. The contestants were divided into two teams — nine female chefs are in the Red Team, with season 17 winner Michelle Tribble as their the sous chef, and nine male chefs are in the Blue Team, with James Avery as their sous chef.
For the first challenge, Elbaum cooked a handmade pappardelle pasta dish with an umami cream sauce that had mushrooms, ricotta cheese, lime zest, and scallions. Ramsey complimented Elbaum on the perfectly cooked pasta and the flavors in the dish, which he gave four points. However, Elbaum’s Blue Team lost the challenge overall. The Red Team was awarded the opportunity to dine at the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Foxwoods Resort Casino, along with Ramsey himself, while the Blue Team was forced to work in the kitchen cleaning dishes, and unloading and stocking deliveries.
Elbaum previously said he had dreamed of being a contestant on “Hell’s Kitchen.”
“When I was a little kid, I used to watch Gordon Ramsey on ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ I really wanted to be there. I saw myself doing it,” he shared with the blog YeahThatsKosher. “I felt honored to be selected, but it’s all because of Hashem. I used to say that one day I’d be on TV cooking with Gordon Ramsey. People looked at me like I was joking. It was like a kid who says they are going to be an astronaut and go to space.”
He also revealed that he visited the gravesite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the day before filming “Hell’s Kitchen” and the day after the show finished because “it was my way of showing how thankful I was for the opportunity.”
“Hell’s Kitchen” airs on Fox on Thursday nights at 8 pm ET, and episodes will stream on Hulu the next day.
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