Tracy Schuhmacher

@RahChaChow

Chef Kimberly Roth grew up in a happy Italian-American household that cooked together and had big Sunday dinners. She doesn't remember ever being yelled at as a child.

"Maybe I’m seeking that out later in life," the 36-year-old Webster native said with a laugh.

The co-owner and executive chef of the Stingray Sushifusion food truck is one of 18 chefs who will compete on the reality cooking competition series Hell's Kitchen, which premieres its 16th season at 8 p.m. Friday on Fox. The series is best known for an apoplectic chef Gordon Ramsay berating chefs that fall short of his expectations.

The show revolves around the chefs facing a series of challenges and dinner services for a chance to win $250,000 and the head chef position at a restaurant in a Las Vegas hotel. But Roth said she didn't go on the show just for the prize.

"I did it to test myself — to see if I could survive Gordon Ramsay," she said. Roth applied to be on Hell’s Kitchen four times before making the show, but once she got there, she had second thoughts. Upon arrival, the producers took away her cell phone and her wallet and “pretty much my identity was gone.” During the six weeks of filming, the contestants were housed in upscale accommodations in Los Angeles, with no television, windows or telephones. The show's producers checked in with the contestants' families once a week.

"It was really hard being a mom," she said. "I missed my kid, I missed my family. I cried myself to sleep the first week and a half.”

She suspects her tears may surface on the show; the competitors were wired for sound around the clock. For the first several days, she found that aspect daunting, particularly when it came to personal hygiene.

"It was kind of like living in a college dorm all over again, but with grownups," she said. She initially felt like an outcast; while the other chefs came from French restaurants, she is a sushi chef and didn't attend culinary school.

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She found Ramsay hard to impress, especially in the beginning of the competition, but had nothing but good things to say about the British chef.

"Everyone was pretty impressed with Gordon. He looks very handsome in person," she said. "That accent, man. He’s buff. He’s sexy, he really is.”

She said she learned new skills from Ramsay, including making a mean risotto and searing a perfect scallop.

"It’s really helped me step up my game," the resident of Ontario, Wayne County, said.

Since returning home, she has been applying her newfound skills on the food truck and her catering company, called Bamboo Panda Catering. It offers in-home sushi making classes and caters office parties, weddings and other events.

TRACYS@Gannett.com