Nosh Heats Up Last Night For Hell’s Kitchen Watching Party

by Steven Doyle    photos by Steven Doyle

Last night I was invited by a few friends to join them at Nosh Euro Bistro to view the season premier of Hell’s Kitchen, the Gordon Ramsey bitch-fest extravaganza that involves 18 chefs from across the country that were selected to compete for the ultimate chef-prize of working as head chef in one of the best restaurants in the United States.

Locally we are excited for the bright and beautiful Carrie Keep, a pantry chef who works at the Highland Park kitchen of Nosh under the long-time Dallas chef and restaurateur Avner Samuel and his exec chef Jon Stevens.

Running a bit late for the viewing I approached the restaurant at about 7:40pm only to find the building being evacuated. Apparently a fire broke out in the kitchen due to a malfunction of an oven causing flames to jet out uncontrollably.  Owner Samuel was on hand and attempted to squelch the flames to no avail. 

“One of the knobs on an oven broke and we were unable to turn off the gas. By law I am not allowed to turn off the gas main so the fire continued,” said Samuels.  “I have only seen two kitchen fires in the past forty years. The last time was when I was chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek. The systems were a bit different then and at a certain temperature it sprayed out a dry solution that covered all the food we were prepping for the weekend. About $10,000 worth of meat had to be thrown away,” continued Samuel.

This night would be a bit different.  Soon after the building was evacuated, Highland Park Police moved in on the scene and were able to shut the gas main off causing the fire to die.  After the local fire department checked out the scene the crowd was able to move back into the restaurant, but without use of gas.  This meant for about an hour only cold dishes were to be served while Samuel awaited his plumber to repair the problem and turn the gas back on.

Meanwhile, Hell’s Kitchen Carrie Keep was making her way across the crowd to ensure everyone was comfortable, stopping to pose with the seemingly happy crowd.

By the time we were allowed back into the restaurant the program had concluded, but Keep told us that we could catch Hell’s Kitchen again tonight and Nosh would be hosting another watching party with the promise a fire-free evening.

When asked about Ramsey, Keep smiled and said he was quite the brute on television but not so much off camera. “He would say eff, eff and effing eff, then turn around once the cameras stopped and smile and ask how we were,”  said Keep.

Hell’s Kitchen watching parties will continue at Nosh through out the season or until Carrie Keep is eliminated (should that actually happen).  Some speculate that with Keep’s extreme good looks and talent that she will move far into the competition.  Having spent some time with Keep last eveining we were assured more interviews, so we will keep you updated.