Michael Wray: What the original Hell's Kitchen winner is doing now

Hell's Kitchen has it all: competition, suspense, bleeped-out cursing, and a sense of satisfaction that lets you, dear viewer, know that you can do a much better job of it than they can.

It's impossible to know how a show is going to go when it starts out. Does it seem even more impossible that the first season hit televisions way back in 2005? It did, and the winner was Michael Wray. He was just 27 years old at the time, and when he won, he had this to say (via the BBC): "For the first time, I feel like I'm in control of my own future. I've proven myself to myself, and that's important."

That's tear-jerkingly lovely, right? It's everything we wanted to see — a young, talented chef being given the chance that most of us can only dream of. So, what happened? Unfortunately, Wray's path hasn't been an easy one, and that optimistic young chef was on the verge of some insanely difficult years.