Published: March 26, 2008 03:50 pm      

TV: Western New Yorkers try to rise up on cooking show

Two Western New Yorkers will be featured on the upcoming season of “Hell’s Kitchen.”

No, chicken wings will not be served.

Bobby Anderson, a Niagara Falls native who now lives in Buffalo, and Buffalo resident Shayna Raichilson-Zadok are two of the 15 contestants competing for the top prize in the fourth season of the Fox series. The winner will win the job of executive chef —worth $250,000 — at host Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant, The London West Hollywood.

Neither local participant is a kitchen novice. Anderson is an executive chef for Wegmans, while Raichilson-Zadok has owned her own catering company since graduating in 2005 with a hospitality degree from Buffalo State College.

Anderson, 37, has worked his way up in the cooking world. He started out washing dishes in local restaurants and hotels before becoming a line cook at the Comfort Inn in Niagara Falls. He’s since cooked in numerous venues, including the Radisson Inn, E.B. Green’s Steak House and Shanghai Red’s, before settling in at Wegmans.

“I needed to get into a company where I can think about retiring,” he said.

That career hunt led to the twist of fate that landed Anderson on the show. While job-hunting in the eastern half of the state, Anderson and his fiancee (now his wife) made their way from Albany to New York City. She convinced him to get in line when they happened upon the casting call location, but he had to pass since he drew No. 1,072.

“On my way out, a casting member gave me a note to come back tomorrow,” he said. “I said I couldn’t, then he pulled me in, and I got to interview right away.”

Anderson “went home to live a normal life” for about a month after that, at which time the show’s producers sent him to California for a second interview. Having liked what they saw, they kept Anderson in L.A. to tape the show.

Raichilson-Zadok’s route to “Hell’s Kitchen” was longer. A fan of the show from its first season, the 28-year-old was set to take part in the casting call for season three until she found out she was pregnant. Having had her child since then, she went to New York City to meet with casting agents for season four, who likewise called her out to the West Coast.

“I was very, very happy with the experience,” she said. “It was a thrill to have a goal and to have a dream, and to be able to see it come to fruition.”

Those dreams crash-landed soon after filming began. An advance copy of the season premiere showed the local contestants and their peers struggling during their first night on the job, as they were unable to meet Ramsay’s demands and couldn’t fix a suitable meal before the restaurant’s diners left in frustration.

Both Western New Yorkers said Ramsay’s hard-edged nature is more than skin deep.

“The show’s called ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ It’’s hell. Make no mistake about it,” said Anderson, who had among the biggest problems in the debut episode after calling himself the “Black Gordon Ramsay” early on. “It’s being stripped down from everything you learned in the last 20 years, and you start from scratch.”

“They don’t call it ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ because it’s puppies and kittens,” Raichilson-Zadok said. “What you see is pretty much what you get. It’s not an easy thing.”

Neither contestant could divulge how they fared on the show, but both called the experience amazing.

“Win or lose, I’ll always be in this industry,” Raichilson-Zadok said. “Every time I’d leave the restaurant business and take an office job, I’d find myself leaving within six months. It’s one of those professions that’s in your blood.”

“I grew up on the streets. The cooking world is something totally different” Anderson said. “I was just Bobby, a kid form Niagara Falls.

“I beat out a lot of people, a lot of contestants (to get) on that show ... It was something that I had to get used to.”

Contact editor Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.