‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Winner Alex Belew Loved ‘The Menu’ – ‘Every Chef Has Thought About That With Customers’ [Exclusive]
Horror-comedy film The Menu may be a little brutal to watch for some, but for those who work in the industry like recent Hell’s Kitchen winner Alex Belew, the film had plenty of moments that had him laughing, not to mention nodding in agreement.
Films like The Menu and the FX series The Bear both center on restaurants and the head chef, but each takes an entirely different turn. While The Bear and The Menu reflect on the grueling and intense aspects of cheffing, The Menu is a film about how famed Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) murders his patrons.
Murder aside, Belew said even the absurdity of The Menu had some pretty realistic moments that had him rolling, while the theater was hauntingly quiet. “With The Menu, outside of the absurdity of it, I found myself laughing so much throughout that because every chef has thought about that with customers,” he joked with Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
‘Hell’s Kitchen’ winner Alex laughed at this ‘The Menu’ moment
In The Menu, overzealous foodie Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult) is oddly delighted to be heading off to Chef Slowik’s remote island for an elite dining experience with a select few. Spoiler alert: Tyler knew ahead of time of Slowick’s murderous plan, but obviously death was worth one of Slowik’s meals. At one point in the film, Slowick invites Tyler into the kitchen to cook. But after hearing his snobbish food remarks leading up to the moment, alas – Tyler can’t cook.
Belew loved that scene – and no, he has no plans to murder his customers any time soon. “My favorite scene in the whole movie was when he brought Nicholas Hoult into the kitchen and made him cook. He was this food critic, but at the end of the day, he could not actually perform a task!” he laughed.
“That’s so significant to the way that we live our lives right now,” he added. “Everybody bashes restaurants and everybody’s an elite Yelper, but at the end of the day, they can’t fry an egg. And I love when [Slowik] was like, ‘Oh, is this a new way of dicing a shallot that you learned? Everybody can watch the chef.’ I was dying laughing and then the whole theater was quiet, but I was laughing.”
‘The Bear’ was an intense and real look at chefs
Belew also watched The Bear Season 1 and said the series definitely offered an insider look into what it’s like to work in a real kitchen – except for the canned tomato windfall. The Bear follows a highly regarded young chef, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) who has to return home to Chicago to take over his brother’s neighborhood greasy spoon diner after his brother’s death.
“The Bear is a very intense look at really what it’s like to be a chef in some ways,” Belew shared. “Obviously, he was dealing with a lot of emotional issues and family issues. And, he had a lot going on outside of the restaurant itself. But it was very relatable, especially how service goes. And how if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.”
Belew laughed, “Now, I’ve not found stacks of money in the pantry!”
Alex Belew was in his own real-life chef whirlwind experience on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’
Fresh off of his own real-life chef rollercoaster on Hell’s Kitchen: Battle of the Ages, Belew said the experience was thrilling and a little terrifying.
“It did not feel like [I was going to win] while I was living it,” Belew said, reflecting on the experience. “It was just like, I’m glad it wasn’t me today. Not until it got down to the top five. Even the first black jacket challenge, I didn’t get a black jacket. And I was like, oh God, two more of these back to back it’s crazy. So I’m very thankful to get one of those. I had no clue what was going to happen.”
Belew won the Head Chef position at Hell’s Kitchen in Atlantic City, the $250,000 cash prize.
Hell’s Kitchen Battle of the Ages is produced by ITV America’s ITV Entertainment in association with A. Smith & Co. Productions, Inc. Gordon Ramsay, Arthur Smith, Kent Weed, Kenny Rosen, and Bernie Schaeffer serve as executive producers.
