{"id":417391,"date":"2026-10-03T02:58:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417391\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T02:58:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T02:58:59","slug":"lake-worth-native-competes-on-hells-kitchen-plans-new-miami-restaurant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/417391\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Worth native competes on \u2018Hell\u2019s Kitchen,\u2019 plans new Miami restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WFLX) – A chef from Lake Worth who grew up watching \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d is now competing on the show and said the experience has been nothing short of validating.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Cerease is one of 18 Gen-Z chefs, nine men on the blue team and nine women on the red team, vying to become America\u2019s next culinary star on the milestone 25th season of Gordon Ramsay\u2019s long-running FOX cooking competition. <\/p>\n

\u201cA surreal moment. I grew up watching the show, so I didn\u2019t think it was possible, and then I got the call,\u201d Cerease said. \u201cI was stuck for a while processing, and then once I got there, it was just another day in the office, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HELL'SHELL’S KITCHEN: CONTESTANTS in the “Tale of Two Kitchens” episode of HELL\u2019S KITCHEN airing Thursday, October. 1 (8:00- 9:01PM ET\/PT) on FOX. CR: Jeff Neira \/ FOX. \u00a92026 FOX Media LLC.(Jeffrey_Neira | Jeff Neira \/ FOX)<\/p>\n

Cerease said being on the show has improved his cooking skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is 25 years and under, 21 to 25, so it was good just to compete with people my age. Growing up I was always the youngest in every kitchen I worked in, so now I have the opportunity to share some of the youth spotlight, with a lot of the chefs that are competing all the way from Argentina to Romania to Ohio,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone brought their own talents to compete, but we were obviously watching and seeing some techniques that we might have liked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerease graduated from Lake Worth\u2019s culinary program and describes himself as a chef, a title that carries specific meaning in professional kitchens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just different ranks in the kitchen. You can start off as a dishwasher, prep cook, you work your way up to a line cook,\u201d he said. \u201cChef de partie, which is like you\u2019re like the lead of that station, and then you go sous chef, executive sous chef, and executive chef sous chef is pretty high up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HELL'SHELL’S KITCHEN: CONTESTANTS in the “Tale of Two Kitchens” episode of HELL\u2019S KITCHEN airing Thursday, October. 1 (8:00- 9:01PM ET\/PT) on FOX. CR: Jeff Neira \/ FOX. \u00a92026 FOX Media LLC.(Jeffrey_Neira | Jeff Neira \/ FOX)<\/p>\n

Cerease said working with Chef Gordon Ramsay was not what some might expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not super scary. I\u2019m very respectful, so I feel like he was just kind of matching my respect level, but obviously he\u2019s about business,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re in the middle of service, he\u2019s Chef Ramsay, but outside of services, he\u2019s Gordon Ramsay. He always asks how we\u2019re doing, if we ate last night, how well did we sleep last night, so he\u2019s very polite and personal for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The competition has also been personally meaningful for Cerease, who said it helped him rebuild confidence after an injury almost a year ago sidelined him from the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"HELL'SHELL’S KITCHEN: CONTESTANTS in the “Tale of Two Kitchens” episode of HELL\u2019S KITCHEN airing Thursday, October. 1 (8:00- 9:01PM ET\/PT) on FOX. CR: Jeff Neira \/ FOX. \u00a92026 FOX Media LLC.(Jeffrey_Neira | Jeff Neira \/ FOX)<\/p>\n

\u201cI recently had a little bit of an injury almost a year ago and it put me out of the kitchen and I was in my head constantly wondering if I lost my talent and I lost my skills, and then I had the opportunity to be in that kitchen. I can\u2019t tell you how I did, but you won\u2019t be disappointed,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just very validating on its own to know that I can still compete with some of the best talent that\u2019s in America. \u2018Hell\u2019s Kitchen\u2019 is very thorough on who they pick and who they bring on to compete, so just being picked and competing was very validating for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season 25 was filmed at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, home to one of Ramsay\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen restaurants. The winning chef will receive a Head Chef position at that restaurant and a $250,000 cash prize.<\/p>\n

Off the competition, Cerease is gearing up to open a restaurant called 1123 in Wynwood Miami, with a ribbon cutting set for Nov. 23.<\/p>\n

\u201c1123, we\u2019re projected to open that last week of November. It\u2019s in this old building, super spacious. We\u2019re in the midst of remodeling right now,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re decorating the inside, new booths, the whole nine. So we\u2019re projected to open that last week of November, ribbon cutting on Nov. 23, 1123.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HELL'SHELL’S KITCHEN: CONTESTANTS in the “Tale of Two Kitchens” episode of HELL\u2019S KITCHEN airing Thursday, October. 1 (8:00- 9:01PM ET\/PT) on FOX. CR: Jeff Neira \/ FOX. \u00a92026 FOX Media LLC.(Jeffrey_Neira | Jeff Neira \/ FOX)<\/p>\n

Cerease said his accomplishments carry deep meaning for his family. He is a first-generation American whose parents are from the islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m first generation American. My parents are both from the islands, and that\u2019s what they strive for, to give their kids a better life, and I took the opportunity and I ran with it,\u201d he said. \u201cTo say they\u2019re proud is an understatement. I don\u2019t know, maybe I finally won the rank as favorite child, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

At home, Cerease takes a more relaxed culinary approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the house, it\u2019s a different style of cooking. I love comfort food, so I\u2019ll just throw stew together or something, but I normally like to cook, and it kind of keeps me,\u201d he said. \u201cI experiment a lot, so I have cookbooks. I\u2019ll go to the store, see what recipes I want to try, and but I do the majority of the cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because he handles most of the cooking, his mother hasn\u2019t needed to cook in some time \u2014 something Cerease sees as a fair exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe hasn\u2019t cooked in a really long time. I try to be very methodical with my mom, have the food ready before she gets home,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s a fair trade, she paid for me to go to culinary school so I could return the favor like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d Season 25 airs Thursdays at 8\/7c on FOX and streams the next day on Hulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WFLX) – A chef from Lake Worth who grew up watching \u201cHell\u2019s Kitchen\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[165200,165193,165199,165194,165192,165197,165191,165198,165190,225,227,226,165196,165195],"class_list":["post-417391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-165200","tag-chef-gabe","tag-cooking-competition-2026","tag-fox-cooking-competition","tag-gabriel-cerease","tag-gen-z-chef","tag-gordon-ramsay","tag-hells-kitchen-fox","tag-hells-kitchen-season-25","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-lake-worth-chef","tag-wynwood-miami-restaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}