Warning: This article contains spoilers for the penultimate episode ofHell’s Kitchenseason 21.
“I think she started a phenomenon, if I’m honest,” Ramsay said of her dish.
“Polenta can be a boring starch and everyone’s fed up with braised short rib dumped on there.
Chef Dafne Mejia on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’.Fox
That sea urchin is a beautiful, salty texture running through there.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What has it been like watching yourself on a culinary competition?
So it gives me the confidence boost that I think I’ve always been searching for.
Chef Dafne Mejia’s winning dish in the Entertainment Weekly challenge on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ season 21.Fox
Coming off of that, what did the win in this first challenge mean to you?
Day after day you’re fighting for your life.
It was like, “Hell yeah, I get to redeem myself now.”
That sea urchin polenta, is that something you have had somewhere before?
Is it something that’s in your arsenal?
Or was it an in-the-moment creation?
Honestly, it was a mistake.
So I’m like, okay, I still want that same flavor.
What can I do that will still be Italian cuisine and still represent who I am as a chef?
So I saw polenta, I’m like, we’re doing it.
I can’t believe this is a mistake and this might win it for me.”
Happy accidents are the best.
You go with the flow and sometimes the flow is better than anything you ever could have planned for.
And that’s what it was… We’ll see what Italians feel about making that, though.
[Laughs] But I feel like it’s definitely still in the authenticity of Italian cuisine.
Whose name did you think I was going to say?
He’s someone that is changing the culinary world.
He’s going with this and that and putting it together and it creates magic.
And I’m more of an old-school chef.
I use very basic recipes, but I make it my own rusticness.
So I really thought you were going to give it to someone else I was shocked.
I really think it was my story that made it… You ate it up.
So that was the biggest win for me.
You’ve made it to the finale, you were the third of three that Chef Ramsay revealed.
I was either going to go home or stay for the win.
Sommer has been killing it this whole time.
It was an honor.
I was like, “F— yeah!”
I almost passed out, though.
All right, tease the finale for us.
What can you say?
I had to look around and be present because there was so much going on.
For me, that was it.
It was a memory that I’ll never forget in my life.
I almost wish I could always relive it because it was just like unreal.
The two-hour season 21 finale ofHell’s Kitchenairs Thursday, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
