Sept. 28, 2026
“Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters.”
That quote sums up the kitchen according to Chef Gordon Ramsey. GRCC alumni Jonathan Gudino (“Chef Jonny G”) learned firsthand how the kitchen crucible forms character when he competed on season 25 of “Hell’s Kitchen.”
“Hell’s Kitchen” is an American reality competition cooking show hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey. Each season, two teams of chefs compete for a job as head chef at a restaurant, while working in the kitchen of a restaurant set up in the television studio. Season 25 began airing on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.
Rekindling a Love for Food
So how did Chef Jonny G of Grand Rapids find himself under the culinary lights? It all started in the kitchen with his mom.
“My parents adopted me from Haiti when I was five,” Gudino said. “My mom loves to cook, and I gravitated to the kitchen with her. I cooked all through middle school and had fun with it. By the time I was in high school, however, much of my focus had shifted to sports — baseball, soccer, basketball — and that took a lot of time. I still liked to cook, but it was mostly for fun with friends and family.”
When Gudino headed to college, he left the kitchen behind and focused his attention on baseball. Unfortunately, that part of his career was short-lived.
“I tore my rotator cuff the first year,” Gudino said. “I rehabbed like crazy, but I couldn’t get back to what I had been. That was the end of my sports career. I was pretty depressed, because baseball was my life. I dropped out of college and I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
His mom suggested that he rekindle his love for food by going to culinary school.
“I signed up at GRCC just a couple weeks before classes started,” Gudino said. “That first semester was tough. I took night classes, day classes, online classes, anything to get me going. But by second semester, I had fallen in love with food again and I was pulling great grades.”
Making the Cut
In 2023, while in culinary school, Gudino signed up to be a contestant on “Hell’s Kitchen.”
“It started as a joke,” Gudino said. “I was going to be the next Gordon Ramsey. In the meantime, I graduated from GRCC in April 2024 and started my own business doing dinner parties and meal prep. I would also do pop-ups at parks. But something was missing. The work wasn’t fulfilling my expectations.”
That all started to change in October 2025.
“I got an email from someone who said they were from Hell’s Kitchen and I ignored it,” Gudino said. “I thought it was spam. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I responded. Turns out it was real!”
Thus began an arduous, seven-month process of interviews and videos, ups and downs. At about month three, he started to think he might make the cut. Being an athlete, Gudino reverted to his training discipline to get ready.
“I used to watch the show as a kid, so I had a basic knowledge of the process,” Gudino said. “I started watching reruns. I would get random ingredients from the grocery store and bring them home. Then I would time myself while making a dish with them. I asked people to judge me so I could get used to that feeling. If I made it, I didn’t want to come unprepared.”
Chef Jonny G made the cut, and found himself on the team for season 25. You’ll need to watch the show to see what happened to him as a contestant, but Gudino was open about what he learned as a person and a chef.
“This was the hardest mental and physical thing I’ve ever done,” Gudino said. “It forced me to question myself. Did I really love food this much? And the answer was yes. It grew my love of food and my cooking skill. Learning to cook better under a well-known chef boosted my confidence. Yes, Chef Ramsey is tough but I chose to think of him like a coach. Coaches don’t sugar-coat things. I had to let the words go in and out, but let what he was saying sink in. He’s a great teacher, and he was trying to make all of us better.”
“GRCC Showed Me Where Food Could Take Me”
Chef Jonny G says that GRCC gave him a fantastic culinary foundation.
“Yes, I improved my knowledge of cookery and food science and techniques, but there was a lot more to it,” Gudino said. “I learned how to own a business and run a restaurant. I learned to taste food and appreciate cuisines from all over the world. GRCC showed me where food could take me. My professors are great people and cheerleaders, which is not always the case in this industry. They all reached out with congratulations when I made the show.”
While the rest of us wait to see what happens next, Chef Jonny G is putting his experience to good use. He’s been focusing on meal prep and dinner parties in the winter, while doing big weddings in the summer. As a chef, Gudino incorporates his Haitian heritage with his mom’s love for Mediterranean food. You can learn more via Instagram, @mealsbyJon. Business has been good and Gudino’s future is looking bright.
“My experience on TV showed that this is the beginning of Chef Jonny G,” Gudino said. “It’s a launch pad for me. My sports training taught me passion and gave me the grit to succeed. God opened this door and my job is to walk through it. I don’t know where it will take me, but I’m going to jump on board.”
Visit GRCC’s Secchia Institute for Culinary Education web page to learn more about programs and areas of study.
This story was reported by Julie Hordyk.