Popular Cooking Show Hosts First Vegetarian Challenge

For the first time ever, the finale qualifier of hit TV cooking show, Hell’s Kitchen, featured a vegetarian challenge. Standing inside a grocery store meat department, host Gordon Ramsay revealed the episode theme before the four contestants scrambled to create their best vegetarian dishes with a mere $25 budget. The winning dish, presented by Virginia chef Meghan Gill, featured zucchini angel hair pasta with mushroom dumplings in a coconut broth. While this was new territory for Hell’s Kitchen, other food shows have integrated meat-free challenges into its programming. Back in 2013, vegan chef and restaurateur Rich Landau of Philadelphia’s Vedge restaurant won Chopped on the Food Network.