WHISTLER — Single-handed, Dave Levey beat out his competition on Hell's Kitchen to win a job for a year — Olympic year — at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler. Literally.
Early on in the competition, Levey injured his left wrist. Since then, it's been in a cast. And in a show before Tuesday's finale, the pain was so intense that he went down to the kitchen floor. Host, chef and chief tormentor Gordon Ramsay nearly forced Levey off the show, saying he'd never seen anyone suffer so much.
But the gritty Ramsay apparently appreciated the San Diego chef's determination.
"I was slightly surprised," Levey said in an interview Tuesday night from Araxi where he'll be cooking alongside executive chef James Walt for the next year. "But I felt confident. I stuck to my guns and I studied what Chef Ramsay wanted done."
It's hard to tell from the tightly edited show whether what we see is what we get. But Levey says what we saw of him is real.
"I definitely was myself. Fox takes the liberty to edit how they want and they can alter a single sentence. So, sometimes you get presented for the better and sometimes for the worse. But what people saw is very similar to who I am."
Unlike some of the contestants, 32-year-old Levey has been cooking for 25 years, worked for a number of top chefs and manned every station in the kitchen.
What he's not anymore is the guy who was doing it all so that he and his fiance could have a good start on their lives together.
The fiance is gone now. They're still friends, he says. But they have no future together.
But how good is it to be a single guy, known to eight million viewers moving to the best ski resort in North America for a dream job AND the Olympics? It's absolutely great.
Of course, snow and ice will be a big change from balmy San Diego, but not a total shock since Levey grew up in New Jersey. Until this past weekend, he'd never been to Whistler, but had visited Vancouver. He likes winter sports — both skiing and snowboarding — but perhaps won't have much time for honing those skills before the Olympics in February.
Levey has to move, find a place to live in the posh and pricey resort. He still doesn't know exactly what prizes he gets other than a job. And then there's the new boss.
Walt is anxious to see just exactly what Levey's skills are in order to assess exactly where the newbie is going to be working in his kitchen. The executive chef isn't quite sure what to expect from Levey over the next year — that's the length of the winner's contract and the time limit on American-born Levey's Canadian work permit.
"It looks to me to be a good choice," he said in an interview before the winner was revealed. "Definitely it is someone who has potential to be a good fit. Obviously once they arrive and are working, we can actually see where they're at. Then, it's really up to them . . . if they can get into the fabric of our kitchen, how they perform, that will decide how much they can do."
Walt normally only hires someone after bringing them in for "observation" and often they'll work unpaid for a week before being offered a job. So I asked him if it isn't a bit of crap shoot having an employee chosen by someone else in a Survivor-type contest?
"Oh yeah, because obviously it's not my decision. Definitely," he said. "You know, Gordon might have seen something different than what I would. I might hire someone that he'd pass on and vice-versa. We all have our ways and a lot of it is instinct. . . With something like this, I can't really be 100 per cent sure."
Part of Walt's uncertainty is due to the show itself. "Hell's Kitchen isn't like a real kitchen."
It's more about personality than it is about food, says Walt. And good food and a good kitchen are more about teamwork than ego and competing.
So, even though Dave Levey won Gordon Ramsay's and viewers' hearts with his grit, he's got a whole lot to prove to James Walt.
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