Community Corner

From the Ivy Inn to Hell's Kitchen

The winner of Hell's Kitchen will earn the position of head chef at Ramsay's gastropub at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas, with an annual salary of $250,000.

 

If you have to go through Hell to get to Heaven, this could be Jacqueline Baldassari's chance. 

Baldassari, 27, recently created the new food menu at Princeton's Ivy Inn and has been a chef at several local restaurants- she currently cooks at the Institute for Advanced Study. Beginning tonight (Tuesday), the 27-year-old from Florence, N.J. will compete against 19 other chefs on season 11 of FOX's reality show Hell's Kitchen. 

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In Chef Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, contestants are pushed to their breaking point and steadily eliminated each week. But the last chef standing gets a pretty sweet prize- the position of head chef at Ramsay's gastropub at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas, with an annual salary of $250,000. 

On Hell's Kitchen, Baldassari says her signature dish is Magret duck breast, sweet potato rosti and caramelized brussels sprouts with a currant au jus.

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Ramsey hasn't revealed this year's winner, but in the show's preview, he hints, "this year is all about the girls, because they're so strong."Baldassari, a chef of 15 years, most recently worked with the Ivy Inn to create a-menu of tasty but affordable items for the Nassau Street bar- items run the gamut from beet salad and vegan crab cakes to mac'n'cheese, pizza, burgers and chicken tenders. 

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