By Sara Beth Williams–
San Juan High School grad and current Executive Chef Anthony Vo made it onto Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen Season 23, which premiered on Sept. 26.
Vo was recently featured in an interview with San Juan Unified School District and on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Sacramento affiliate, CapRadio, where he spoke about his upbringing in Citrus Heights and what led him to become a chef.
Vo attended San Juan High School in Citrus Heights and participated in the Hospitality and Culinary Arts Career Technical Education program, where he learned the importance of “keeping his station clean” and “how to cook on a line.”
“Having a $2 million kitchen at 16 years old was kind of unreal,” he said in an interview with CapRadio, adding that some of the equipment offered by San Juan was so upscale he hasn’t seen it in any of the restaurants he’s worked at to date.
Vo told CapRadio he grew up with his grandparents and often assisted his grandmother, who worked as a sushi chef, with food preparation and chores from a young age. By age 17, after going through the culinary program, he “knew” he wanted to become a chef. His favorite dish as a child was congee, a traditional Vietnamese rice porridge dish, topped with pork floss, scallions, and an egg. Vo called congee his “signature dish.”
After high school, Vo worked as an executive chef for multiple companies, according to his LinkedIn profile, including Westmont Living Inc. and MBK Senior Living. Currently, he works for Sonrisa Senior Living. Some of his listed skills include Italian cuisine, pastry making, and Mediterranean cuisine.
This season of Hell’s Kitchen has a “Head Chefs Only” theme and featured 18 contestants at the beginning of the season. All were either head or executive chefs from across the country, including Vo, who have managed everything from restaurants and country clubs to senior facilities.
While Ramsey is often known for his hot temper and berating of contestants, Vo said he saw Ramsey as more “of a teacher” and that his experience with Ramsay gave him “more purpose than he already had to keep pursuing his culinary career.”
“We’ve all run kitchens. We’re not line cooks, we’re not sous chefs, so he expected everything from us,” Vo said to CapRadio, adding that receiving “validation” for his cooking skills while on Hell’s Kitchen was “everything.”
In an interview in October with the San Juan Unified School District, Vo had the opportunity to meet his former culinary teacher after 10 years and said that the program saved his life. San Juan Unified School District confirmed Vo was part of the first class to make use of the new culinary facility at the time, which had its beginnings as a one-room home economics class. Today, the culinary facility has five main rooms: a classroom, a home economics kitchen, a bakery, a commercial kitchen, and a restaurant and café.
The San Juan High School website lists five Career Technical Education pathways students can follow, including Hospitality and Culinary Arts, Construction Technology, Transportation Technology, Media Arts and TV, and Photography.
Hell’s Kitchen is currently airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. on FOX.
The rest of the interview with Vo can be read on CapRadio here.
San Juan High School alumnus and current Executive Chef Anthony Vo made it onto Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen...
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