Vineyard graduate stars on popular cooking competition

Ryan Scanlon developed his joy for cooking as a kid watching his single mother trying to make a meal in their Island kitchen. As a working mom, she was busy, and didn’t have a lot of time.

“We had a lot of dry meals,” said Scanlon, a 2019 graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

To help out, Scanlon took over cooking the proteins for the family, with his mom complementing with sides. “She loved it,” he said.

Now, not long after honing his passion and skills at Alchemy Bistro and Bar in Edgartown, Scanlon has landed on one of the nation’s most watched food shows — “Next Level Chef,” where he cooked in front of host and judge Gordon Ramsey and other world-class chefs in the hyper-intense, competitive show.

We don’t know how Scanlon fared. Per show guidelines, his lips are sealed until the season concludes. But he can tell us that he’s proud of how well he did.

“A work-related opportunity did come out of the show,” Scanlon teased. “It was a really great opportunity, and something I was really excited to get into.”

Scanlon is part of season four of “Next Level Chef,” which premiered on Thursday. He won’t make his official debut — at least cooking on the show — until episode 3, which will be aired on Fox on Feb. 27.

If you haven’t seen “Next Level Chef,” the show features three different types of cooks: home cooks, social media cooks, and professional chefs. Scanlon is in the professional category.

The set is a three-story tower (in an undisclosed location), with each level a different style of kitchen. The basement level features bare-bones and busted equipment — broken ovens and misshapen pots. The middle is your average commercial kitchen. And then on the top floor is a high-end kitchen with all the bells and whistles. Contestants compete on each floor, and three teams are eventually picked by Ramsey and the two other judges — Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais.

The winner of the show gets $250,000. Aside from the cash, the winner is also provided a one-year mentorship with all three judges, a massive boost to any budding chef’s career.

You could say that Scanlon’s journey to get on the show started in Edgartown, at Alchemy. As he describes it, he was looking for work on the Island, and was cold-calling restaurants. Alchemy owner and Chef Christopher Stam got Scanlon’s voicemail, and called him back. Scanlon was frank that he had no professional experience, but that was what Stam was after. He was looking for someone he could teach.

During the year plus he spent at Alchemy, Scanlon worked every part of the line in the kitchen, learning the foundation of being a chef. He also learned the importance of taking pride in cooking quality food.

But more than just a boss and a teacher, Scanlon said, Stam helped see in him what Scanlon couldn’t see in himself — that he could be a professional chef.

“He took me under his wing, and mentored and trained me,” Scanlon said. “It was a great experience. He was a big brother, an almost fatherly figure to me.”

Scanlon said that what he particularly enjoyed about Alchemy was that Stam created a family atmosphere for the staff. Among the traditions was closing the restaurant on Sundays so the staff could hang out together on the beach and have barbecues. “It felt like home,” Scanlon said.

After learning the ropes at Alchemy, Scanlon traveled to L.A., where he worked in Michelin-starred fine restaurants. He found himself working up the chain of the chef ladder, and his career started to take off.

But he said he never found that camaraderie and family atmosphere that Alchemy had created. He was looking for new opportunities. A little more than a year ago, he was offered a spot on “Next Level Chef.”

There was some hesitation at first. Scanlon had just become a new father to a baby daughter named Stasia with his partner, Angelia Childers.

The young family was only home from the hospital for less than a week before he would have to get on a plane for the show. And he would be away for a month of taping. But the opportunity was too good not to turn down.

“We talked collectively as a couple, and thought it was a crazy opportunity that I couldn’t pass up,” he said. “It was scary for both of us.”

And Scanlon is glad that he did. He said he had an incredible time getting to know all of the other contestants on the show, and learned a considerable amount working with some of the best chefs in the country.

“I’m super-proud of what I did. I left a good impression on all the judges, and the producers, and the cast,” he said. Asked if he was nervous to see the finished product, which will be blasted into living rooms around the country, Scanlon said he’s more excited. He says he left it all on the table.

“As a professional chef, I went to culinary school, and worked for some great chefs across the country,” he said. “I had a lot of pressure not to do foolish stuff [on the show]. But I did a lot of great stuff that I am really proud of. I lived it.”