Jackson chef Enrika Williams stars on the latest episode of "Hotel Hell," airing tonight at 8 p.m. on FOX. On the show, Gordon Ramsay, an experienced professional chef notorious for his particular brand of "tough love" in the kitchen, helps hotel owners and staff revamp their struggling or outdated establishments.
In this latest episode, Ramsay visits Hotel Chester (101 N. Jackson St., Starkville), a historic hotel in Starkville. The hotel hired Williams to help develop the new Beer Garden restaurant inside the building. By the program's end, the restaurant will sport a new, diverse menu with a great deal of southern flare, offering crawfish eggrolls, fish and chips, the "Gordon Burger" and more.
The Jackson chef grew up in West Point, where she helped her grandmother cook for her family, flipped through cookbooks for fun and watched culinary television icons such as Julia Child. Williams graduated from the culinary program at the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2004.
The world of culinary arts, outside of baking, is a largely male-dominated field, but Williams more than holds her own. She trained in the French kitchens of Au Pied du Cochon at the Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta and served as a sous chef at Parlor Market (115 W. Capitol St.) in downtown Jackson.
Williams will host a viewing party at Bruno's Adobo (127 S. Roach St.) for the 8 p.m. airing of "Hotel Hell." The event is $10 per person, and the proceeds benefit the local Sickle Cell Foundation at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
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