Wil Kocol

“

I'm proud that I'm gay, I'm still one of the guys. Same plumbing, different wiring.

”

Hometown/Residence	Elgin, IL
Occupation	Quality Control Chef
Kitchen Experience	10 years
Culinary Education	Elgin Community College Kendall College
Statistics
Challenges Won	0
Services Won	0
Times as BoW/Announcer	0
Times Nominated	1
Placement	16th
Episode Eliminated/Withdrew	16 Chefs Compete
Images of Wil Kocol

Sarah Kaye Phoenix, formerly known as Wil Kocol, was a contestant on Season 5 of Hell's Kitchen. She ranked in 16th place.

Season 5

Episode 1

Main article: Episode 501 - 16 Chefs Compete

In the series biggest turnout, thousands of chefs auditioned for Hell's Kitchen. However, only three hundred arrived at Hell’s Kitchen and met Jean-Philippe and Ramsay. Out of the three hundred, sixteen were selected to compete. Jean-Philippe began calling out the chefs chosen to compete. While not seen, Sarah was one of the sixteen called to compete.

During the Signature Dish Challenge, Sarah was the second person to have her dish judged by Ramsay. When Ramsay unveiled her dome, he thought it looked like it was dropped. She said it was her dish, explaining it was rabbit two ways, braised and grilled. Ramsay took notice of her pin, and he said it was her pride pin, meaning he was openly gay. Still, she said she was one of the guys with different wiring. Although Ramsay liked the taste of the rabbit, he criticized the dish for its poor presentation.

After the challenge, Ramsay asked both teams to develop a team name. Per Robert's suggestion, the blue team went with Blues Brothers. Ramsay admitted liking the name when he heard it before service began.

During dinner service, Sarah was at the garnish station. She burned the gnocchi garnish, forcing a stall. Robert and Seth came to help Sarah. Later, she continued to struggle in the blue kitchen on the garnish station, which caused a big stall on entrées. She forgot the mashed potatoes for the order and asked for a cold sizzling pan. Ramsay called her terrible, and Robert came to help the latter. However, Ramsay noted that Charlie and Robert was on the garnish station, and she was on Planet Cuckoo. Ramsay told him that she had a partner all night on garnish, and she said it sucked to be on Ramsay's bad side. The blue team lost the service due to Giovanni's poor performance as a waiter. They were asked to nominate two people for elimination. During deliberation, Danny picked her as the worst performer of that night, and she decided to nominate himself. While the men were taken aback by that decision, she was willing to own up to her mistakes.

Sarah was named the blue team's first nominee by Seth, but J corrected the latter saying that Sarah was the second nominee, with Seth being the first. Robert said that although he would switch places with her, he wanted to respect her decision to self-nominate herself. However, Seth called that decision stupid. During deliberation, she said she wanted to undo the damage she did that night and show Ramsay her true skills. Ramsay eliminated her for her poor performance on the garnish station and nominating herself for elimination. She admitted she messed up during her exit interview, but she felt humbled to be eliminated.

Ramsay's comment: "I found it quite strange that Wil didn't even have the will to succeed. He clearly didn't belong in Hell's Kitchen."

Nomination History

Week 1	Nominated

Post Hell's Kitchen

• After her appearance on the show, Sarah became Sous Chef at Redstone American Grill.
• She later moved to Yard House in 2013, where she became Kitchen Manager.
• She got married in 2013 and divorced in March 2022.
• In 2020, she began to socially transition and changed her legal name to Sarah Kaye Phoenix. She also started HRT in 2022.

Trivia

• As Wil, he was the third gay contestant to compete on Hell's Kitchen and the second gay male contestant, following Dewberry (Season 1).
• She is the fourth contestant, and the second contestant to nominate themselves for elimination, following Rachel (Season 2), Jen (Season 3), and Petrozza (Season 4). She is the first to do so for her team without fighting for it and the first to get eliminated after that process.
• As Wil, he was the second consecutive male contestant to be eliminated on opening night, following Dominic (Season 4). She is also the first LGBT+ to be eliminated on opening night.
• She is the last contestant to never participate in a reward-based challenge.
• She is the first contestant in the show's history to rank in 16th place.

Quotes

• "I'm proud that I'm gay, I'm still one of the guys. Same plumbing, different wiring."
• "Being on the receiving end of chef Ramsay's rant, yeah, that's sort of sucked."
• "I had to nominate myself. You know, you own up you man up to it, it caught a few people by surprise."
• (After being eliminated) "I took a risk nominating myself. I fucked up tonight, plain and simple. Striking out first time up to bat is very very demoralizing. I feel very humbled right now."

Gallery

Wil's Intro Spot

Wil's Signature Dish

Wil in Blue Jacket

Wil's Confessional

Seth and Wil Nominated

Wil Eliminated

External links

• Wil Kocol on Instagram