Appleton chef impresses Gordon Ramsay with his signature dish on the 'Hell's Kitchen' season premiere

(This story was updated to add new information)

APPLETON - Season 23 of "Hell's Kitchen" premiered Thursday with a lot of firsts – the show's first time filming in a location other than Las Vegas and the first time the show cast only head chefs for the competition.

Appleton chef Corbin Emilio stood amongst 17 other chefs from across the country as Michelin star chef Gordon Ramsay announced the new season as "Hell's Kitchen: Head Chefs Only," filming at the Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

With the chefs divided into two teams, men and women, they were given the opportunity to cook a signature dish to be judged by Ramsay on a scale of one to five. The team with the most points wins the challenge.

As Emilio stepped up to present his dish, Ramsay asked him to take him back to the beginning of his journey into culinary arts.

It was his mother who introduced him to cooking after she moved to America from Venezuela, Emilio explained.

"One of the things she taught me from a very young age was how to cook and taking simple ingredients and putting a lot of love and care into them," Emilio said.

Which is exactly what Emilio did as he presented his pan-seared New York strip with polenta and sautéed broccolini, garnished with chimichurri. The signature dish impressed Ramsay and he rated Emilio's dish a four out of five.

"The steak is cooked beautifully, seasoning on this is incredible, it's big, it's robust, it's you," Ramsay said, ending with some advice to Emilio to "tighten up" his chimichurri recipe.

Emilio said he chose the signature dish because it was a meal he had the most confidence in preparing.

"Proteins have always been a stron suit for me and I knew I would nail this dish with no problem," Emilio said.

The rating Emilio scored temporarily put the men's team in the lead, but the women's team won the overall challenge with a score of 40-38.

Although the men's team lost the challenge, Emilio said he was still proud of the opportunity to serve chef Ramsay.

"Of course I was incredibly nervous cooking for such a legend, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't practiced what I was going to say to him in that moment multiple times," Emilio said. "It was definitely the highlight of my career."

While the women's team celebrated their win with dinner alongside Ramsay, the men's team was tasked with cleaning the kitchen after the challenge and unloading the delivery truck for the next night's dinner service.

The episode ended with Ramsay warning the chefs that this season's challenges and dinner services were going to be much more intense than any of the previous seasons.

Emilio is a three-time business owner in Appleton after acquiring Ambassador , a cocktail lounge, in 2020, and opening his other two businesses, Ukiyo Private Kitchen and Vegan Nightmare , not long after.

Follow Emilio's journey on "Hell's Kitchen: Head Chefs Only" every Thursday at 7 p.m. on Fox.

Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-453-5107 or jburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @burns_jelissa or on Instagram at burns_jelissa.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton chef impresses Gordon Ramsay with his signature dish on the 'Hell's Kitchen' season premiere