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Celebrity Chef Robert Hesse first got his love for cooking by watching his grandmother and mother in the kitchen as a boy growing up in Long Island, NY. While shuffling back and forth between New York and Florida, That love for cooking laid dormant as an emotionally challenging upbringing caused him to make some poor life choices, often seeing ...
Oct 13, 2021 · Chef Robert Hesse was a thrill to watch on Hell’s Kitchen, and along with so many of the chefs from his seasons, earlier and later, he shined in a difficult situation for sure. It was heartbreaking to see him go through the heart attack that stopped his dreams of winning the competition in season 5, but then he was brought back in season 6 ...
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Robert Hesse was a contestant on Seasons 5 and 6 of Hell's Kitchen. In Season 5, he ranked in 5th place, and in Season 6, he ranked in 10th place.
Episode 1
Thousands of chefs auditioned for Hell's Kitchen in the series' biggest turnout. However, only three hundred arrived at Hell’s Kitchen and met Jean-Philippe and Ramsay. Out of the three hundred, sixteen were selected to compete. Jean-Philippe began calling out the chefs chosen to compete. While not seen, Robert was one of the sixteen called to compete. During the Signature Dish Challenge, Robert was the fourth person to have his dish judged by Ramsay. When Ramsay unveiled the dish, he asked who made the camel hoof. He said he did and told the viewers he did not care about his weight problem. He called himself an underdog like Rocky. He made a potato and white truffle-wrapped Chilean sea bass. It was cooked nicely, but it had a disgusting sauce. Ramsay said the dish was clumsy like himself. When he went back in line, he said he was not an oaf like Shrek because he could bang it out. After the challenge, Robert got excited about the grand prize as his friends went to the Borgata. Ramsay asked both teams to decide on a team name for the opening night. He suggested Blues Brothers, and Seth liked the name. Ramsay liked the name when he heard it. Robert was at the appetizer station with Ben during dinner service. He started loudly repeating the appetizer order in the middle of Ramsay’s call out. After being forced to call it out, Ramsay threatened to send him to a hot boiling bath if he would do it again. His first order of spaghetti came out raw, and Ramsay told him to move his butt. During the power outage, he told Danny to keep his words to himself in the blue kitchen and never argue with Ramsay again. He knew Danny had to learn to shut up. After the power came back on, he and Ben got their appetizers out. When he saw Wil struggling on the garnish station, he went to his aid. The blue team lost the dinner service because of Giovanni's poor performance as a waiter. They were asked to nominate two people for elimination. Robert was not nominated for elimination. When Ramsay asked for his opinion about the two nominees, he said he would trust Wil more than Seth. While Robert offered to take Wil's place on the chopping block, he chose not to, declaring that Wil nominated himself and that he was respecting Wil's decision. While being dismissed, he was mad that Seth survived over Wil.
Episode 2
The following day at 5:49 AM, a marching band came into the dorms and played loudly, and the chefs woke up. Robert struggled to run without tripping. Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria ordered the chefs to get downstairs, and they were led outside to find Ramsay. Wanting both teams to learn how to respect their products, Ramsay had them go to their crates and gather all the scallops into their colored buckets. During the Scallop Cleaning Challenge, he tried to be careful, so he did not lose a finger. After seeing Giovanni's strong performance, he was impressed by the former's performance and saw the women's look of dread across the room. He kept it going with five of his scallops accepted. After seeing J's poor performance, he prayed for at least one point from the former. The blue team won the challenge 36-35. They were rewarded with a helicopter tour of Catalina Island and a submarine ride. Before leaving, Ramsay called Robert over to his office. The helicopter insurance could not allow anyone over 300 pounds. Since he weighed 400 pounds, he had to take a ferry to the island. That disappointed him as he already had problems with society over his weight and felt singled out. However, he was happy about the ferry trip. He was on the ferry during the reward and eventually made it to the island. Unfortunately, by the time he made it, the reward was over. That upset him as he only got a free ferry ride compared to his teammates. Before dinner service, Ramsay assigned Robert to run the raw bar for the blue team. However, he was not thrilled about serving customers due to his large size. At the start of dinner service, he was seen getting the raw bar ready. Jean-Philippe noticed that he was sweating, and he reminded the former that he was 400 pounds. At one point, he was sending up the raw appetizers to his tables and decided to pour on the charm for the customers. At one table, he explained to the customers what his tattoo was. One table told Jean-Philippe that he was doing great, pleasing the former. The blue team won the service. At elimination, Robert participated in the emotional standing ovation given to Ji because of her departure, along with his teammates and the red team.
Episode 3
The following morning, the Sous Chefs woke up the contestants at 6 AM with cowbells and told them to get dressed and out the front door to the SUVs. The barely awoke chefs were driven to an unknown place. It turned out it was a meat processing plant, and they took a tour. Robert got disgusted upon seeing the different organs, blood, and cattle bodies all around the plant. During the Meat & Cow Challenge, Robert was the third person on his team to attempt the second half of the challenge. He finished six incorrect answers. The blue team eventually won the challenge, and they were rewarded with a private jet trip to Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, California, where they had a wine tasting and a steak dinner with Ramsay. Before leaving, he showed the women his wedding shoes and revealed that he gave up his wedding, which was supposed to happen the following day, to be in Hell’s Kitchen. The women joked with him about doing a bachelor party for him while telling him he looked nice. Lacey called him a sweet person and said she respected him for not giving up a huge opportunity. He said it was the best day of his life during the reward, and he felt like he was on top of the world. Before dinner service, Robert's teammates decided to honor their service for him and his fiancé, as that night would have been his wedding day. During the Steakhouse double service, Robert was at the meat station with Giovanni for the first seating. When one of their steaks was sent back for being raw, Ramsay called him and Giovanni down to touch it. After the first seating, he was distraught since he felt he had embarrassed himself, his fiancé, and his family that night. During the second seating, during which he was a waiter, he was not seen much. The blue team lost the dinner service, and they were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, he and Danny agreed with Seth about nominating Giovanni. He was not nominated for elimination.
Episode 1
Robert was invited as a special guest for the opening night, along with his wife. When he arrived, service already began and he went to the hot plate to greet Ramsay, who told to have a seat with his wife and enjoy themselves. What he didn't know at the time was that Ramsay invited him so that he could be offered a second chance to return. After service, Ramsay went to speak with him at his table and told him it was good to see him. After Ramsay recalled that he lost the opportunity during the previous season because of his health, he was invited by him to come back in Hell's Kitchen for another chance to win the competition. He was blown away by the offer and accepted it, with Ramsay stating he deserved it because he was a bloody talented cook. While saying goodbye to his wife, he declared his plan was to win Hell's Kitchen. When both teams were lined up, Robert joined the blue team. He did not wear a jacket, but instead wore his dinner clothes, due to both a lack of time to change and the indecision over which team to place him in. Ramsay introduced him to the other chefs and welcomed him, stating he came back for a second chance after leaving for medical reasons the previous season. Then, Ramsay declared the blue team winners for serving some entrées out, compared to the red team's zero. At elimination, after Melinda's elimination, Robert was sent to the red team as Ramsay made a decision to strengthen the teams. After he joined the red team, Ramsay reminded him that even though he was a hero in the previous season, he would be treated like everybody else that season.
Episode 2
While being dismissed, Robert was very excited to be brought back in the competition, declaring he would lead his team to victory or die trying. Then, he gave some tips to the women on how to properly cook the food, with Lovely even comparing him to an angel coming down from Heaven. He also acknowledged the red team was seeing him as the one who would save the day, and declared that statement was true. The next morning, both teams got down in the blue kitchen, where Ramsay introduced the Shrimp Cleaning Challenge. When Tennille got her shrimps judged, Robert questioned her judgment by referring to the fact that she was wearing glasses, so she could see what she was doing. He was the last person from the red team to have his shrimps judged by Ramsay, and he was confident, but his performance was disappointing as only 4 of his shrimps were accepted, and Ramsay declared he was expecting more of him. The red team lost the challenge 44-45, and they were punished by cleaning shrimps and segmenting lemons, removing every seed from all of them, all day long, for a shrimp cocktail during the next dinner service. The next day, during prep, Robert emerged as a leader on the red team, giving specific instructions on how to prep some type of food, which the women really appreciated as they were trusting him. During dinner service, Robert was on the appetizer station with Suzanne. Before tickets came in the kitchen, he rallied the women and told them to communicate well. He was confident making his first risotto as it was his second appearance on the show, but Ramsay told him he put rice over burnt shallots. He blamed that mistake on the fact he was a little bit anxious, and acknowledged he had to turn the oven on before cooking. Ramsay pulled him to the side and asked him why he made that mistake, but he did not give any excuses. Then, he got back to his station, and a minor fire erupted in one of his pans, discouraging Ramsay, who told him he was doing terrible at the moment despite having done well on the previous season, and Suzanne gave him some encouragement. After a lot of struggle in both kitchens, Ramsay ordered both teams to send shrimp cocktails to the dining room, and shut down both kitchens. When both teams were lined up, Ramsay named both teams losers, and asked them to nominate two people each. During deliberation, Robert reminded Tennille she served raw shrimp to a pregnant woman, after she denied her poor performance in the dining room. Later, an argument erupted between Van and Jim from the blue team, and he calmed down Van after he left his team's discussion. Robert was not nominated for elimination and tried to calm Joseph down, who was having his infamous outburst, by saying that Ramsay was trying to get the best out of him and that he should look past it.
Episode 3
After Joseph's departure and Tony's elimination, Robert was transferred to the blue team, where he belonged, as they were two men down. Back in the dorms, he gave his farewells to the women, hugging each of them, while declaring he did not care about what team he was because his goal was to win Hell's Kitchen. The chefs went to bed, trying to get some sleep, but very early in the night, alarm bells started to go, Sous Chef Scott, holding a flashlight, told everybody to get out of the restaurant immediately as an emergency was called. Then, fire trucks arrived at Hell's Kitchen and the chefs got outside. But, Ramsay was standing with the firefighters, revealing that it was a fire drill. He introduced the Firefighter Pasta Meal Service Challenge, and all the chefs got back in the dorms to change. During the challenge, Robert was annoyed by Andy's way of not using all the available ovens for baking the garlic bread. He told Andy to use all five of the ovens, disbelieved that he had to be told that as it was common sense. When the garlic bread finally made it to the dining room, he motivated his teammates before Ramsay called out the next order. Near the end, when both teams were rallying to complete their tickets, he helped the blue team catching up with the red team, but it was not enough as they finished before the blue team. He was upset as everybody was winning except him. The blue team lost the challenge, and they were punished by cleaning the fire trucks left by the firefighters, as well as their equipment, and they would continue by cleaning the dining room inside. Arrived outside, Robert, along with Kevin, was dedicated to clean and polish the fire hoses. During the second part of the punishment, Dave and Kevin left for the hospital because of injuries, and he knew that it was not good for the team. During dinner service, Robert was on the fish station. On the first ticket, he communicated well with Van, waiting for his call to drop the scallops, and comparing Van to a straight up thug and a pitbull on a chain. Later, Ramsay asked him for the scallops, but he was running and almost fell to the ground. Ramsay was worried and told him that running was not a good idea because of his weight. Then, he asked Andy to drop the scallops, but was annoyed by the latter's way of dropping too many scallops for the size of the pan he was using, telling him to use his common sense. After, he sent his scallops to the pass, but they were not acceptable, so Ramsay pulled him aside, schooled him on that mistake, but he confronted Ramsay and the two of them had a heated argument, where Ramsay called him a fucking idiot. After that, he acknowledged the mistake of bringing a gimp, referring to Andy, on his station as all he did was bringing him down. He started over, and was called a douchebag by Andy. On the blue team's last ticket, Kevin was ready to send his chicken to the pass, but Robert was not ready with his salmon. He gave 12 minutes for the salmon to be cooked, much to Andy and Kevin's dismay. Moments later, he almost fell for the second time scrambling all over the kitchen. He angrily threw scallops in the bin, and when he was finally ready with his salmon, the red team had already finished their last ticket and were clearing down, angering Kevin. Despite his problems, the blue team won the service for having an 83% above average rating from the customers, compared to the red team's 81%.
•After his first appearance on the show, Robert married, lost 55 pounds, and underwent gastric bypass surgery. He also upgraded to the Executive Chef position before returning to Hell's Kitchen the following season, a year later.
•After his second appearance on the show, he lost 455 pounds after suffering from 3 heart attacks.
•He worked as Assistant Executive Chef at The Brews Brothers restaurant before moving to other restaurants within the group.
•Finally, in 2017, he was hired by Noto's Old World Italian Dining to grow new concepts for that brand and its Grand Rapids area restaurant and banquet center.
•He planned to open The Urban Melt in early 2020 and opened his food truck Fo' Cheezy in July 2019.
•He also competed on Beat Bobby Flay in the episode "Fry Me a River" but lost in the first round.
Season 5
•He is the fourth contestant who withdrew from the competition for health reasons, following Larry (Season 2), Aaron (Season 3), and Ji (also from Season 5). He was also the only one to this date who had been nominated for elimination at least once; until Drew (Season 19), who withdrew for health reasons and was also nominated for elimination at least once. •He is the first black jacket contestant to withdraw and the only black jacket contestant to withdraw for health reasons. •Because of his illness, he did not come back for the last dinner service of the season as supposed to. Therefore, Lacey took his place, making him the first black jacket contestant ever who didn't return.
Season 6
•He is the first contestant ever to compete in two different seasons and the first to return after leaving due to health reasons in the previous season. This would become common in Seasons 17 and 18. Ironically, his returning season was Season 6, which introduced Ariel to the viewers who ranked in third place in this season but would go on to become the winner of Season 18. •In order to hide Robert's reintroduction from the audience until later in episode 1, the intro was omitted. It wasn't introduced until the second episode, with the opening narration immediately transitioning to an impatient JP. In contrast, it would normally cross-fade to the theme song. •He is the only contestant who joined the competition without being part of the season's initial line-up of contestants. Because of this, he has the unusual fact that he was never in the competition at the same time as Louie and never had a simultaneous dinner service with Melinda, despite being in the same season as both of them. •He is the first male contestant since Season 1 who began his run with the red team. •He holds the record for the least amount of services with his original team before being transferred to the other with one. He was switched to the blue team in light of Joseph's exit leaving two empty spots in the blue team instead of the expected one •He is the first male contestant who switched teams without making it to the black jackets. •He is the first contestant to date who performed in a Special Events Challenge and service in two different seasons. He is also the first and the only contestant to date who won the challenge and service in two different seasons. •He is the first contestant who came back after a medical exit and the first contestant to compete in two different seasons. •He is the first contestant who received fewer nominations during their second run on the show. •He is the first contestant ever who received a retrospective montage of his run in two different seasons and the first male contestant who received one without making it to the black jackets. •At 10th place, he is the lowest ranking contestant to receive retrospective montage after elimination. •He is the only Returning Chef to return after a Medical Exit and place lower their second time. •He is the only contestant to miss an elimination of a teammate despite not being eliminated. •He is the first contestant to participate in the final service without doing so in his original season.
Mar 10, 2021 · From the streets to the kitchen, Chef Robert Hesse tells his story of his way out of his troubled past thanks to Eckerd youth camp | Local News | chronicleonline.com.
Chef Robert Hesse. 2,487 likes · 11 talking about this. Celebrity Chef Season 5 & 6 of @HellsKitchenFox Featured on @FoodNetwork 綾 F
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Robert from Hell’s Kitchen: A Success Story. Robert Hesse, a former contestant on the popular cooking competition show Hell’s Kitchen, has come a long way since his time on the show. Despite facing numerous challenges and setbacks, Robert has managed to turn his life around and pursue his passion for cooking with great success.
Jul 6, 2014 · If we had to pick four words to describe Chef Robert Hesse, they would be: open, honest, humble, and gracious. It was our great pleasure to see this two-time Hell’s Kitchen contestant and Assistant Executive Chef working at The Brews Brothers restaurant in the Eldorado Casino Hotel in Reno,…
