The Tragic Story Of Hell's Kitchen First Winner

Hell’s Kitchen’sfirst winner, Michael Wray, had a bright future ahead of him when he won the cooking competition show. Sadly, BBC reported he faced addiction issues after the show and became homeless.

He was just 27 years old when he won in 2005 but he ended up turning down one of the biggest opportunities of his life. “For the first time I feel like I’m in control of my own future,” Michael said on the show. “I’ve proven myself to myself and that’s important.”

During Hell’s Kitchen, he was offered a job working with Gordon Ramsay. In a shocking twist, he turned down the offer due to his personal struggles and what came was many years of tragedy and turmoil.

Why Michael Wray Turned Down Working With Gordon Ramsay

Michael Wray entered Hell’s Kitchen hoping to win $250,000 prize money, which he would use to open up his own restaurant. He walked away with a lot more than the cash prize, however. “As Michael was celebrating the win of a restaurant,” Ramsay’s voiceover said on the episode, “I realized that an individual of Michael’s talent – I didn’t want him to get away.”

Ramsay offered Michael a job working alongside him in his London establishment. Michael nervously agreed to it, although he later changed his mind. He told the BBC it was the “hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. I regret it all the time.”

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While Gordon Ramsay is intimidating, he flew Michael out to London for five days to give him a taste of what he could have had, but Michael knew he couldn’t do it. “He’s offering this young chef to move to London to mentor, to show how this is all done, and I had to turn him down” he explained to the publication.

What Happened To Michael Wray After Winning Hell’s Kitchen That Led To Homelessness

According to Mashed, Michael Wray’s struggle with addiction happened before he appeared on Hell’s Kitchen. It started when he had back surgery a few years prior and, after complications, was prescribed opioid painkillers.

He was still taking prescription pills when he appeared on the reality show, declaring himself a “functioning addict.” Although he told the producers, he still smuggled pills in.

“It was already taking half my mental energy just to keep my addiction in check just so I could work and live a normal life,” he explained.

“I had a lot of things going on with trying to stay sober-ish with my medication,” Wray explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the dark side of fame.

After turning down Gordon Ramsay’s job offer, Michael Wray opened his own restaurant with a cash prize, but sadly, just a few weeks after opening, his newborn daughter passed away.

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While talking to BBC, he shared, “We had some complications at birth where she lost her breath for seven or eight minutes. She lost too much oxygen to her brain, and died. It put me in a tail spin for the next couple years. It was all starting to crumble around me.” Michael managed to carry on at the restaurant for around six weeks after losing his daughter before he had to walk away.

Soon, his relationship broke down, and he started living out of his truck. While Michael tried to find work in the kitchen, his drug habits spiraled and made it hard to hold on to a job.

Before long, Michael was doing drugs and living under an underpass near Hollywood Boulevard. Despite this personal turmoil, he was leading classes at the high-end Sur La Table store by day. “Like, I’m the frickin’ winner of Hell’s Kitchen, graduated from Le Cordon Bleu London, and I’m like this skuzzy dude living in my car, begging my doctor for drugs.”

Moving to New Mexico, doctors told him that he wasn’t going to give him his prescription medication anymore. When the hospital wouldn’t help with his withdrawal symptoms, Michael broke into his local pharmacy and stole what he needed. Mashed reported that what happened next was a breaking point for Michael, who headed out to the desert and tried to cut his own throat. Luckily, a passer-by found the dehydrated man and called 911 to help him access the care he required.

• Michael woke up in the hospital 48 hours later and decided to clean up.
• After 10 days recovering in hospital, he entered rehab in June 2012.
• When he left rehab, he handed himself to the police for stealing from the pharmacy.
• He served a month in jail.

What Is Michael Wray Doing Now?

Michael Wray has overcome the worst and made important changes to his life. He used his passion for food to help him move forward and recover. He taught at a community college and started cooking in small restaurants.

“I spent the next three to four years just getting back to the ability where I could call myself a chef,” he admitted to the BBC. “I started the whole process again.”

According to ScreenRant, Michael is now happily married and lives in San Diego with his wife. He met his wife Sharlene in rehab and believes it’s the best thing to happen to him. “I had a smile on my face for the first two or three years. I couldn’t believe how good life is,” he says.

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He has recently started raising funds to open a food truck, which he hopes to use to feed people who have been through the same struggles as him. Whatever he does in life, food will never be far away.

As for appearing on Hell’s Kitchen again, Michael doesn’t think viewers will be seeing him return to the cooking competition show. “I think that because of the way my life went right after Hell’s Kitchen, I think they’re more interested in having success stories,” he explained.

Hell’s Kitchen is a reality cooking competition series that sees celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay as a coach and judge a group of chefs from multiple backgrounds to win the job of head chef at a high-performing new restaurant appointed by Ramsay himself. Contestants will deal with Ramsay’s dramatized berating as they are pushed under intense cooking conditions and various challenges, as a new competitor is eliminated each week. 

Release Date

May 30, 2005

Main Genre

Reality

Cast

Gordon Ramsay , Jason Thompson , Roger Craig Smith

Seasons

23

Network

FOX

Franchise(s)

Gordon Ramsay

Directors

Mark W. Roden , Sharon Trojan Hollinger

Showrunner

Kenny Rosen

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