Jeffery Dewberry

 

“

I'd rather you'd be saying I was Brad Pitt's wife!

”

Hometown/Residence	Stockbridge, GA
Occupation	Pastry Chef
Statistics
Challenges Won	1
Services Won	0
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	2
Placement	11th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	Day 2

Jeffery Dewberry was a contestant on Season 1 of Hell's Kitchen. He ranked in 11th place.

Season 1

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 101 - Day 1

The twelve contestants arrived in Hell's Kitchen and celebrated with a champagne glass and getting to know each other. Dewberry nearly tripped when he walked down a step before revealing that Southern cooking was his main skill. After some time, Maître D' Jean-Philippe and Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann greeted them, revealing that their first test began now.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Dewberry called it scary to cook his signature dish and felt everybody had a deer in the headlight look. He was the seventh contestant to have his dish judged by Ramsay, but the latter had some confusion over how to pronounce his name after calling him 'blueberry.' He served a baked spaghetti, but the pasta was overcooked and was compared to children's food by Ramsay. After the challenge, he was placed in the red team, along with Chris, Elsie, Carolann, Jimmy, and Jeff.

During prep, Dewberry wanted to throw up at the news that Hell's Kitchen was opening. During dinner service, he was at the garnish station. Because of his lack of energy on his station, he was called a "big fucking overgrown muffin" by Ramsay. After Ramsay shut down both kitchens, the red team lost the dinner service, and Elsie was named "Best of the Worst." During deliberation, Elsie left to lie down for a bit and brought him with her. He admitted that while he was not happy being here, he also did not want to leave the competition. While he feared he would be sent home that night, Elsie promised him that he would not be going anywhere.

Despite Elsie's guarantee, Dewberry was her second nominee for elimination, with Carolann being the first. During his plea, he felt he had more of a base knowledge than Carolann that would give him an advantage, which was the best thing he had to offer. However, when Ramsay asked him what the base was, the latter sheepishly claimed general things. He survived elimination, and while being dismissed, he was shocked he was nominated and said if he were Best of the Worst next time, he might get revenge.

Episode 2

Main article: Episode 102 - Day 2

Immediately after surviving elimination, Dewberry went to the bathroom for a moment alone, but Elsie was in there as well. After looking at each other for a moment, he hugged her, saying it was indeed hard for her.

The next day, at 5:55 AM, Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann went into the dorms with cookware and banged them together to wake up everybody, with Dewberry originally thinking it was somebody with a gun. During the Squid Cleaning Challenge, his heart sank as he hated seafood. Despite that, Elsie noticed that he had a good handle on cleaning the squid. He cleaned two squids that met Ramsay's standards and felt he got reenergized after being nominated last night. It was the red team's best individual performance, and the red team won the challenge 6-5. They were rewarded with a dinner with and prepared by Ramsay. Before the reward, he called Elsie J-Lo after looking at her outfit. During the reward, he called it amazing to get to know Ramsay on a personal level.

Dewberry was about to send up a plate of spaghetti to Ramsay during prep, but the latter told him to taste it before he handed it off. Despite that, Ramsay deemed it acceptable and told him he had to do all his dishes like that. During dinner service, he began on the appetizer station. He was up to a good start with his spaghetti dishes, but when he moved to the meat station. When he brought lamb and Wellingtons to the pass, the lamb was cooked perfectly, but the Wellingtons were not, so he was asked to start again. After some encouragement from Chris and a fire started in a pan, he went to Ramsay to tell him that he was confused and did not know what he was doing as the only thing he master was spaghetti. Later, he told Ramsay that it would take 12 minutes for the next order of Wellingtons. When Ramsay questioned him, he said he had no idea of what was going on, and after been called "useless" by Ramsay, he started to walk out of the kitchen. But when he saw Elsie's face, he could not walk out and got back to his station, only for Ramsay to criticize him for trying to desert his team. However, he understood what Ramsay was trying to do, understand his shortcomings, and be better than he was. Moments later, customers went to the kitchen again, and they were told to fuck off by Ramsay, and after, Ramsay went to him to explain to him the problem. His struggle on the meat station made one of his team's tables to order pizza to the restaurant and Jean-Philippe being physically assaulted. After witnessing those events, Ramsay shut down the restaurant. The red team lost the dinner service, and Chris was named "Best of the Worst." During deliberation, he regretted his decision in attempting to quit and knew he would have to work hard to earn back his team's respect if he would survive elimination.

Dewberry was Chris' first nominee for elimination, with Jeff being the second. He argued that he had some decent work that night during his plea but knew that his near quit was unacceptable. In the end, he was eliminated for giving up and turning his back on his team after making a mistake. During his exit interview, he admitted that he deserved to be eliminated and knew that it was not justifiable to almost walk out on his team.

Ramsay's comment: "I'm looking for someone who can weather the storm, inspire individuals, stand as a great leader. That, clearly, is not Dewberry."

Episodes 10/11

Main article: Episode 110/111 - Day 10

Dewberry returned for the last dinner service of the season because Mary Ellen did not. When he returned, a clip of him nearly walking out during the second dinner service was shown. He was Ralph's final pick, after Andrew and Wendy, and the final pick overall. He was not angry about being picked last because he expected it and planned to do his best for Ralph. The only thing he asked Ralph not to do was put him on meat, recalling his disastrous performance on it during opening night.

During dinner service, Dewberry was at the fish station. At one point, Ralph caught him putting fish stock in the spaghetti when he was not supposed to. Then, he started to feel faint and warned Ralph that he was about to pass out. After he splashed some water on his face, he felt very hot and stressed to the point of seeing stars. Still feeling hot and weak, he left the kitchen to sit down, but Ralph told Sous Chef Scott that he was not sure if he would make it, especially as he did not want to see him die. Andrew went to the back store to check on him, sitting down and pushing him to go through service. When he returned to the kitchen, stating he would not leave, Ralph held him the list of rules to follow. He knew Ralph wanted him and managed to bounce back with a properly cooked sea bass. Ralph called him his rock of Gibraltar, but he jokingly said he would rather be called Brad Pitt's wife. That joke made Ramsay and Sous Chef Scott laugh, but Ralph felt he had some issues. Later, he was slow on the ravioli, to Ralph's annoyance, but he received a big kiss from Ralph after service. Ralph eventually lost the finals to Michael.

Nomination History

Week 1	Nominated
Week 2	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After his appearance on the show, Dewberry created his own YouTube channel featuring vegan recipes and becoming the chef/manager of the Flying Biscuit Café in Atlanta.

Trivia

• He is the first contestant from Georgia.
• He is the first-ever male contestant to be eliminated.
• He is the first contestant to have survived elimination and the first to have been nominated twice in a row.
• He is the first contestant whose show name was their surname.
• He holds the record for the shortest tenure of any contestant who returned to the final dinner service to serve as a brigade member after participating in just two challenges and two dinner services before being eliminated.
• He and Jessica are the first two LGBT+ contestants to compete in Hell's Kitchen. He is also the first gay male contestant.

Quotes

• "When I saw all those squids, my heart sank because I ABSOLUTELY HATE SEAFOOD! I don't like anything that comes out of the sea!"
• "I was like, 'Oh my god, he's gonna kill me!'"
• "I'm confused. I don't know what I'm doing."
• Chef Ramsay: You're useless, you know that? Dewberry: "I am... Goodbye!"
• "He was trying to get me to understand what the shortcomings were, and about staying with the team, and... he was trying to get me to be, I guess, better than I am, evidently."
• ("To Elsie") "Look at you, J. Lo!"
• ("After being eliminated") "Well, what happened happened, I mean, I can't say that I didn't deserve it. I kinda felt like I was making a comeback, but I was not justified in walking out on my team."
• "Just don't put me on meat, and it'll be okay!"
• "Alright. This bass... is full of fuckin' love."
• Ralph: "You are a rock today, aren't you, Dewberry? You are Gibraltar, you are the hope diamond!" Dewberry: "I'd rather you'd be saying I was Brad Pitt's wife!"

Gallery

Dewberry's Intro Photo

Dewberry's Signature Dish

Dewberry in Red Jacket

Dewberry's Confessional

Carolann and Dewberry Nominated

Dewberry and Jeff Nominated

Dewberry Eliminated

Dewberry as Returning Chef

Dewberry in Blue Jacket

External links

• Jeffery Dewberry on Instagram
• Jeffery Dewberry on Twitter
• Jeffery Dewberry on YouTube