Joe Tartamella, executive chef at Ridgewood's Felina, has made his television debut as a contestant on the latest season of "Hell's Kitchen," a fiery Gordon Ramsay-led competition show on Fox.
Tartamella, 35, who was named head chef of the Bergen County restaurant in 2023, is one of 18 contestants competing on Season 23 of the hit show that debuted on Sept. 26. This season's show is dubbed "Head Chefs Only," with only executive chefs, or the cre?me de la cre?me of the cooking elite, facing Ramsay's ill-tempered wrath. Prior seasons included talented amateurs, line cooks, chefs and culinary hopefuls.
"This has to be the most accomplished group ever in the history of this competition," Ramsay said in the season's opening scene to the competitors, who come from all ages, backgrounds and culinary specialties. The show kicked off with fanfare from the United States Coast Guard Band and over 220 cadets at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
But with a kitchen filled with top-tier cooking talent, Ramsay told the group, "My standards this year will be higher than ever before."
The academy is about a 25-minute drive from Foxwoods Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut, where this season's winner will become head chef at the resort's Hell's Kitchen, Ramsay's latest venture that opened over the summer. The winner will also receive a $250,000 prize.
The show, which was filmed for several weeks earlier this year, is split into a Red Team (all women), led by chef Michelle Tribble, who won "Hell's Kitchen" Season 17, and the Blue Team (all men), led by James Avery, an Asbury Park-based chef who operated The Mainstay, a bar and lounge, before closing it last month. He still owns and operates The Black Swan, a gastropub in Asbury Park.
Who is Joe Tartamella on Hell's Kitchen Season 23?
Tartamella is originally from Staten Island, according to the Fox website, but lives in East Rutherford. He was the former chef at Allegory, a modern restaurant inside the MC Hotel in Montclair, before taking on the role as head chef at Ridgewood's elite Felina restaurant, which is owned by Landmark Hospitality events management company.
Felina's Ridgewood location opened in 2019 by founding four-star chef Anthony Bucco and is renowned for its contemporary take on classic Italian and American dishes. Nearly a year after his debut at the restaurant, fans voted Tartamella runner-up as Best Chef for (201) Magazine's Best of Bergen Readers' poll for 2024.
Tartamella, a first-generation Sicilian American, shows a bit of his feisty side in a teaser trailer for the season, at one point responding to a fellow chef with his arms outstretched, "You want people to speak, or you want people to shut up? Make up your [expletive] mind."
In another scene, a clearly exasperated Tartamella says that the show is the "hardest thing I've ever done in my life," and is later approached by the hard-headed Ramsay, who tells him, "You’re a [expletive] good cook. Compose yourself."
Tartamella is also the executive chef of Felina Steak in Jersey City and at Felina in Summit, located at the Albion, the home of the former Grand Summit Hotel in Summit that opened last month. When accessing the website, a pop-up notes that guests are welcome to visit the Summit restaurant to visit Tartamella and chef Whitney Thomas, who is competing against Tartamella on "Hell's Kitchen" this season. Thomas, originally from North Carolina, now resides in the Bronx, according to her profile.
Tartamella grew up the son of an immigrant bread baker who moved to Staten Island when he was 18, he said on the season premiere. He graduated from the French Culinary Institute, which is now known as the International Culinary Center.
Previously, Tartamella was an executive chef for Harvest Restaurant Group, working in the company's Trap Rock Restaurant & Brewery in Berkeley Heights, Tabor Road Tavern in Morris Plains and Roots Steakhouse in Ridgewood.
Tartamella said winning the show would be a "life-changing" experience, noting that his wife and daughters would be "real proud of me if I was able to accomplish that."
New Jersey head chefs also competing on Hell's Kitchen
The show also features two more head chefs from the Garden State. Uri Elbaum, 27, who calls Argentina home but now lives in Long Branch in Monmouth County and is executive chef at kosher restaurants The Butcher’s Steakhouse, Primavera and Smash, all in the Deal area, according to his social media sites.
Kyle Timpson, 29, is originally from Dennis Township in Cape May County, but now lives in Philadelphia. Timpson attended Atlantic Cape Community College and worked at several restaurants along the Jersey shore before moving to Philadelphia in 2021, according to his website.
How do I watch "Hell's Kitchen" Season 23: Head Chefs Only
The show airs from 8-9 p.m. on Thursdays on Fox. New episodes can also be streamed on Hulu the next day.
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