If you’re a fan of cooking shows, you’ve likely heard of chef Gordon Ramsay. His shows, like Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares, have made Ramsay infamous for his special brand of tough love. Now, he has a new culinary competition show, called Next Level Chef. The show features a combination of social media cooks, amateur home cooks and professionals — including one from southeastern Wisconsin.
Zach Adams is a sous chef at North Shore Country Club in Mequon. He’s also worked at restaurants in Milwaukee like View MKE and Third Coast Provisions.
Things weren't going his way when he auditioned for Next Level Chef, so Adams wanted to take his chances and go after his dreams of being a celebrity chef. He made it past auditions and earned a spot on the national cooking competition show to fight for a chance to earn $250,000 and mentorship from chefs Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais.
No spoilers here on how Adams placed. But throughout the show, Adams paid homage to Milwaukee by cooking up a fish fry and a Milwaukee style burger.
After the show, he came back to southeast Wisconsin and sees Milwaukee as a city on the rise. "I really think there's potential for young hungry chefs in the city to make a name for themselves. Milwaukee will always be my home, I owe everything I got to the city."
Adams also proudly represented his Filipino identity on the show, and on social media has shared that he is adopted. Ultimately, he hopes that he made his people proud. "I hope I made people who feel less than for being adopted that they can do something and accomplished their dreams."
