Season two of Hell's Kitchen is serving up tasty ratings for Fox and piping-hot reality action for viewers. The show features wannabe chefs, some with absolutely no experience in the kitchen, fighting to triumph in the 15-week competition and win their own restaurant.
Hotheaded ex-footballer Gordon Ramsay presides over it all, barking orders and sniffing with disgust as the novices mess up right and left. This week, hapless Tom was at the receiving end of Ramsay's Wrath. Ramsay blasted the New Jersey boy when the 43-year-old ex-stockbroker couldn't get his meat situated. True to format, Ramsay hung Tom's dead, lifeless chef's smock on a meat hook with dramatic aplomb.
TV.com caught up with Tom and got the 411 about the show and Ramsay.
TV.com: So how does it feel to be booted off the show?
Tom: Booted! It's like I tell these people, I said it's like getting wacked. I'm from North Jersey, it's like a Sopranos scene, I got offed. I'm in some dump truck heading toward a landfill in Pennsylvania right now.
TV.com: So does that make Gordon Ramsay mobster Johnny Sack?
Tom: Well, he made us climb into a dumpster, what's the difference, right? Actually, I wanna clarify something: I did not climb in a dumpster, those other fools did. I said "You're an executive chef, and you're gonna climb in a dumpster? Go ahead."
TV.com: Do you think Ramsay held that against you?
Tom: No! He couldn't tell ya who climbed in and who didn't. I thought it was really funny how everyone was so gung ho and just jumped right in. I'm like, "What are you guys, animals? You gotta be kiddin'! You're gonna go climb in a dumpster and then you're going to go cook a James Beard award-winning meal?" Right. And they complained about me sweating in the sauce.
TV.com: They washed their hands after the dumpster, right?
Tom: [laughing] I hope so! I know I didn't have to because I didn't touch anything. I was looking to get the hell outta there, I was looking to hot-wire a car and leave.
TV.com: Really?
Tom: Yeah, if you look, you can see me roll my eyes. I went from wearing a nice suit and tie, in an air-conditioned office to rolling around in a f***ing dumpster? Naaaah.
TV.com: You don't think that's something a chef might have to ever do?
Tom: No, I know chefs, and if you start to see your cost margins going down, you might want to look in the garbage cans at the end of the night, just to make sure people aren't making mistakes and trying to hide it. But I'm too old--I'm an old Wall Street guy--if you make a mistake, you have to fess up right away. I mean, I can't go in at the end of the day 'Oh hey, uh, I had a trade, I thought it was gonna go in our favor, and it didn't, can I have $50,000. You got it?' You just didn't do it. You make a mistake, you fess up. That's part of being a little older, I'm not afraid of it.
TV.com: And maybe you weren't as eager to many of the things Gordon Ramsay wanted you to do. You made a midlife career change, going from a stockbroker to chef?
Tom: Well, actually, I went from stockbroker to telecom, and actually, the telecom thing, let me tell ya, if the whole industry hadn't melted down, with WorldCom, I woulda been in it. Actually, it's funny 'cause I got a job offer, I had worked for WorldCom, and then you know that whole thing happened, they just changed their name back to MCI, and everybody forgot about it. Then when they were getting bought out by Verizon, I thought 'OK man, I got a shot to work for Verizon.' But instead I said, I don't want to do it anymore, I'm going to make $10 bucks an hour as a chef. And I'm doing it.
TV.com: What prompted you to attempt being a chef?
Tom: Well it was something that had eaten at me in college, like in my freshman year. I'm into the college atmosphere, I like socializing, and games, and partying, but I am not into books and studying. So I thought, 'Well, what do you want to do Tom?' And I thought about it, I actually talked to one of my brothers-in-law who owned a restaurant, and they said, 'Well, you're working nights, weekends, and holidays.' I was 19 and wanted to chase girls and drink beer, so I didn't want to have any part of being a chef.
So now that I'm 43, I don't need to be out carousing, so I thought, let me go do something that I really like to do. And I do, I really like this. I just hope I can hang on long enough to make a living. 'Cause I am running a deficit each month, no matter how many hours I work, I don't cover my nut.
TV.com: But you're gonna keep on the chef route?
Tom: I'm in it! I always said it was three to five years before I would make money. So I figure I got another three years, whether it's a restaurant or the catering business, whatever I do, it's gonna involve food.
TV.com: Do you feel you learned a lot from Ramsay?
Tom: Well, I learned that's not the way to talk to anybody. I certainly wouldn't throw anything into their face. I mean, for him to do that to me, a Jersey guy? It was like he was throwing me under the bus a couple times, and I was like "I really want a piece of you, man!"
TV.com: Do you think it was an act or is he really like that?
Tom: Well, I saw him on Conan O'Brien the other night, and he seemed like a good guy. He was having fun, and Conan was breaking his chops, and I said, 'I guess he's alright, he's just a perfectionist.' Understood, I am 100 percent behind the guy, I just wouldn't--like, I can handle him saying 'Move your ass,' but all the other stuff, I don't know.
TV.com: Do you think he made the right decision in axing you?
Tom: No, he made a poor decision. There is really no one else that terrific there anyway, so why not keep the character? I mean, I WAS the show, I'm sorry. They gave me all the lines, they gave me all the looks, they gave me all the hell, they gave me all the grief.
TV.com: It was good TV.
Tom: Yeah, it was good TV, and that's how I took it. Y'know, my boss was like, 'Oh my God, Tom.' But I said, 'Look, it's just TV.' My boss has been 15 years in the kitchen, he's never seen that.
TV.com: Chef Ramsay was really laying into you, because you were having so much trouble with the meat.
Tom: Well you know what? There was...actually, in defense of myself, the night before, we didn't have the oven on and all the Wellingtons got burned, and we didn't sell any. But the night I was cooking, all the Wellingtons went out except one, which was too pink and underdone. But if it's underdone, you can cook it some more. If it's burnt, you can't do anything with it. I burnt one duck, cuz I missed the order, and I rushed. There was just something he didn't like. In the beginning, he gave me the benefit of the doubt, but I didn't progress fast enough maybe. He wanted me out.
In my opinion, the blue kitchen had won, and he called a draw. Rachel got lucky she didn't get picked by her team. The other part was, Heather was crying like a two-year-old! And that's why I didn't say much, because as a salesman, I'm like 'I'm trying to win this customer, Mr. Ramsay.' And she's blubbering. I could never see myself crying in front of a customer. If I was going to Merrill-Lynch, I wouldn't cry in front of Merrill-Lynch.
TV.com: There was a lot of crying going on.
Tom: There was a lot of crying! There's no crying in the kitchen! People get hurt, I got burned on the show, I didn't get whisked off by an ambulance! [makes ambulance and crying sounds]
TV.com: Were you surprised to get canned?
Tom: There were a couple times the first day I thought I should have been whacked. Then the second day, it was between me and Giacamo. Then last night, Virginia had already worked that meat station once that day, and then she was on the same station again and burns all the Wellingtons again. And then she starts crying. You know what? It's not the first set of tits I've lost a deal to.
TV.com: You think that was the deciding factor?
Tom: Oh, well, you know those are amazing puppies there. And she's not afraid to flaunt them. I think it's cheesy when women use them professionally. Like, it's OK when you want a little something extra from your boy, but I don't like it when they try to win a deal with them. I get a bitter taste in my mouth about that. But hey, we're guys, and we fall for it every time.
TV.com: Did you make any enemies?
Tom: Well, there are few guys that aren't welcome over here, I gotta tell you! I got calls from friends of mine who wanna go beat people up. Keith, he told me I suck, but you know what? The truth hurts. It was my first day on the job. As for Garrett--two face, two face. And Heather, I tried to work with her when she came into my team, but she backstabbed me and ran me over.
TV.com: There is a lot of backstabbing going on.
Tom: Heck yeah. I don't think I was too bad. I just tried to win and lose gracefully. What was that book we had to read about, with the kids on the desert island?
TV.com: Lord of the Flies?
Tom: Yeah, that's what it was like! [laughing]
TV.com: Do you watch the show now?
Tom: Well, I was talking to Fox, and they said they lost the northeast corridor once I was gone.[shared round of laughter] But yeah, I guess I would watch to see who gets the s*** now from Gordon.
TV.com: Would you do it all again?
Tom: Heck yeah, and I would win!
TV.com: Well thanks for your time, and good luck with everything.
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