Chef Gordon Ramsay
A New Chef with Attitude Joins Destin Chops 30A from Hell’s Kitchen By Lisa Burwell Photos courtesy of FOX Broadcasting Company
B
orn and raised in France, Giovanni Filipponi came to the United States to train at The Culinary Institute of America in New York. With 20-plus years of experience, some of his most recent credits include serving as executive chef at Tim Creehan’s Copper Grill, Marina Café and Destin Chops (at its previous location overlooking Destin Harbor). He joins Destin Chops 30A as executive chef when the doors reopen for the season—just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend. The last year has been an interesting one for Giovanni. Not only was he the executive chef at Seaside’s Café Rendez-Vous, but he also found time to be a contestant on the fifth season of FOX Broadcasting’s culinary reality TV show Hell’s Kitchen. The season premiere aired Thursday, January 29th on the FOX Channel.
“World-renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay is back for a fifth course of the sizzling and unscripted series,” according to the show’s website www.hellskitchen.com. When I asked Giovanni how he landed the gig on Hell’s Kitchen, he replied that a friend of his who works at a casting agency in New Jersey suggested that he audition. He said he went to Orlando last year to audition “just for kicks,” adding, “What would they want me for, as I’m half crazy?” I jokingly said, “Maybe that alone helped you get selected.” He went to Los Angeles for six weeks to film the fifth season and, just as you would imagine, said it was the experience of a lifetime. “We’d get up early every day to prep, and our main and only goal was to please the chef,” Giovanni continued. He went on to explain how living in a
Chef Giovanni Filipponi
house with sixteen people you’ve never met before was somewhat of a daunting experience, but one that he does not regret. Giovanni would have seen the show for the first time, just like the rest of us, during its television premiere. We wish him well on the show and in his new position as executive chef of Destin Chops 30A.
VIE - Spring 2009
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