Jay Smith

“

My nickname is 'Chef Jay the GOAT'. A lot of people back home call me the GOAT because they think I'm one of the Greatest Millennial Chefs of All Time at home.

”

Hometown/Residence	Kansas City, MO
Occupation	Private Chef
Culinary Education	Johnson County Community College
Culinary Inspiration	Mother and Grandmother
Statistics
Signature Dish Challenge Score	2 out of 5
Challenges Won	0
Services Won	0
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	2
Placement	16th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	Come Hell or High Water!
Images of Jay Smith

Jayaun "Jay" Smith was a contestant on Season 20 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 16th place.

Season 20

Episode 1/2

Main article: Episode 2001 - Young Guns: Young Guns Come Out Shooting

Main article: Episode 2002 - Young Guns: Temping the Meat

The eighteen Young Guns arrive at Las Vegas on a bus heading to Hell's Kitchen, and they drove past the real Hell's Kitchen restaurant. Jay agreed with Megan's belief that young chefs brought more than older chefs. The bus arrived at Hell's Kitchen, where Marino greeted the chefs. Marino explained that Ramsay created a museum to celebrate the past nineteen seasons in honor of the twentieth season. Giving the tour were Shakala and Sean, who led the chefs into the museum. As the chefs toured the museum, they saw photos of past contestants, hung jackets, the Hell's Kitchen Wall of Fame, and lines said from the past seasons. Then, they see video clips of moments from the show. After seeing the video of the chefs that got eliminated mid-service, he got scared. The last stop was an exhibit of the doors used to reveal the winner of each season. Sean said that the final part of the tour was a documentary film about the show's history, which Brynn wanted to see as it would give them an idea of what was in store. However, the curtain pulled back to reveal an audience waiting for them and Ramsay on a stage behind them. Once on stage, Ramsay explained that the museum was meant to showcase the past, while the eighteen of them were the future. Ramsay added that the desire to become a chef was a dream for many young people, and food has evolved over the years since the show began. So, Ramsay announced that the winner of that season would become his protégé and become the new Head Chef at Gordon Ramsay Steak at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. Afterwards, Ramsay announced the Signature Dish Challenge and gave the chefs 45 minutes to cook their dishes.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Jay made an etouffee in the blue kitchen and called himself a GOAT as everyone else did back home. While he thought that every one of his teammates looked shaky, he was confident. He was the final person from the blue team to have his dish judged by Ramsay and went up against Morgana. He felt his heart was beating as he was the last chance the men had to win. He presented his crawfish etouffee, but Ramsay was shocked somebody made a dish like that in 45 minutes. Antonio did not understand that either, but he was hopeful about his chances. While the dish was praised for its nice color, Ramsay found the spice and flour raw and gave him two points. Matthew deemed it a rookie mistake as a dark roux took forever to make. The blue team lost the challenge 28-30, and they were punished by taking in deliveries for ingredients to make stock.

During the Alcohol Challenge, Jay was making a blackened salmon with a citrus tequila succotash and said he had a lot of experience cooking with alcohol. However, he admitted that he could not remember his twenty-third birthday due to being black-out drunk. When the blue team looked at the dishes for the Top Three, he thought Matthew's dish was executed well. He lost the challenge as his dish was not picked for the Top Three. When it was revealed that Matthew's chicken was raw, he was dismayed as the men missed that and feared it would make them look bad. When Matthew was nominated, he knew that raw chicken was hard to bounce back from and wondered if Ramsay would spare the former.

During the 300th dinner service, Jay was on the fish station with Sam. After Ramsay called out the first order of appetizers, he told Sam to fire the salmon, claiming it was his favorite fish. Then, he said the men should have used his salmon dish in the Alcohol Challenge and wanted to prove his teammates. As Antonio and Kevin prepared their appetizers, he walked up the salmon. However, Ramsay and Sous Chef Jason were astonished as they were nowhere close to entrées. To add insult to injury, the salmon was raw. Ramsay asked him and Sam for an explanation, but Trenton knew he should not fire entrées until it was time. Eventually, the blue team was kicked out after nobody had an idea of timings or what was going on. The blue team lost the service, and they were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, he agreed with Sam as the fish station had a system down after the salmon mishap.

Jay was not nominated for elimination, but Ramsay called him down alongside Matthew and Payton. During his plea, Ramsay reminded him about the early raw salmon. Still, he felt he could bounce back, especially after the salmon incident. He survived elimination. While being dismissed, he was relieved to be safe as he was not ready to go back home and wanted to prove to Ramsay he was his next protégé.

Episode 3

Main article: Episode 2003 - Young Guns: Come Hell or High Water!

Back at the dorms, Jay knew some things were still wrong with the men, but he was not ready to go back home to Kansas City as he had a lot to prove.

Before the Whole Squid Prep Challenge, Jay confidently felt it was an easy challenge for the men as all they had to do was filet a squid. He was seen getting one attempt accepted after pushing himself. When Emily came up with her attempt, he prayed that it was the former's downfall. However, it was not, and the blue team lost the challenge 14-16. They were punished by taking in seafood deliveries, breaking down 50 pounds of squid and shrimp, and eating a calamari sandwich. He was not thrilled about eating the sandwich during the punishment as everyone started to gag at the taste.

During prep, Jay asked Steve for assistance on garnish as he wanted to know which dishes his ingredients paired up with. However, Steve was unsure of him as he kept asking questions about the easiest station. During dinner service, he was on the garnish station. He felt confident on garnish after puking his brains out earlier that day. Just as the men were nearly ready, he said he needed salmon garnish ready, but Kevin said they had no salmon fired for the order. Ramsay saw he was not prepared for garnish. Gathering the men for a discussion, he told Ramsay that he focused on the wrong order and did not have the Wellington garnish ready. Ramsay ordered him to hurry it up as the latter tried to keep himself calm. However, Alex was not happy about his mishap as he feared it would ruin the meat station's momentum. Later, he asked Ramsay what was on order, but the latter had the men remind him. Then, Ramsay reminded him that he was supposed to be the best chef in Kansas City due to his YouTube video and asked him to be number one that night. Eventually, the blue team was kicked out after serving raw chicken.

The blue team lost the service, and they were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, Alex blamed Jay for poor communication on garnish. He admitted to his mistake but refused to be eliminated over Alex's raw chicken. He received votes from Antonio, Trenton, and Payton.

Jay was the blue team's second nominee for elimination, with Alex as the first. Due to the chickengate controversy, they were joined by Antonio, Trenton, and Sam. After coming down, Ramsay asked him why that night was difficult, but he blamed the meat station for screwing him up. During his plea, he thought he had a voice despite having a rough day. He was eliminated for his poor performance on garnish. During his exit interview, he thought Alex should go home instead of himself, but he declared that he would go home and keep moving forward.

Ramsay's comment: "After watching Jay struggle so badly on garnish, I decided to assign him to a different station: the train station."

Nomination History

Week 1	Safe
	Nominated
Week 2	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After his appearance on the show, Jay has opened two restaurants with his business partner Steven Blakley called Sauced and Just Slide, both of which have good reviews.
• He also opened a food truck called The What Truck?, which has excellent reviews.

Trivia

• He is the fifth contestant to be nominated by Ramsay on opening night, following Chino (Season 9), Royce (Season 10), Christine (Season 14), and Jose (Season 18).
• He and Trenton are the second and third contestants from the state of Missouri, following Christina (Season 4).
• He is the third contestant to survive opening night elimination and be eliminated the following week, following Dewberry (Season 1) and Nicole (Season 12).

Quotes

• "My nickname is 'Chef Jay the GOAT'. A lot of people back home call me the GOAT because they think I'm one of the Greatest Millennial Chefs of All Time at home."
• (About prepping the squid challenge) "I'm definitely feeling like this is an easy challenge for us. All we got to do is just lay some squid, and break that down. That's nothing."
• (After misunderstood the order) "After getting yelled at, of course it sucks. But you can't beat yourself up. It's time to put my head down, attention to details, DO IT!"
• (After being eliminated) "I'm definitely pissed off right now. You know, at least I was honest about my mistakes. I think Alex should've been the one going home tonight, but this definitely not the last time the world is seeing chef Jayaun. I'm definitely going home, and I'm going to bounce back. I'm going to keep moving forward and do what I'm meant to do: cook."

Gallery

• Chef
• Dishes

Jay in Blue Jacket

Jay's Confessional

Payton, Matthew, and Jay Nominated

Antonio, Alex, Jay, Trenton, and Sam Nominated

Jay Eliminated

Jay's Signature Dish (Episode 1)

External links

• Jay Smith on Instagram