Heather West: What The Winner Of Hell's Kitchen Season 2 Is Doing Now

As far as cooking reality shows go, few are as brutal as Hell's Kitchen, the show which sees contestants vie for a cash prize of $250,000 and a chance to become head chef a restaurant of celebrity British chef Gordon Ramsay's choosing. Between the long hours and late nights slaving away in a hot kitchen, being a chef isn't easy, but working in Hell's Kitchen also means having to face Ramsay's always blunt, scathing criticism and his acid tongue (via Cheat Sheet). 

Hell's Kitchen Season 2 featured 12 contestants fighting for the chance to work as an executive chef at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, and when the dust settled, the crown went to Heather West, a Sous Chef from Port Jefferson, New York, who was just 25 years old when she came out on top. Despite her win, West didn't get named head chef; instead, she went on to be named Senior Chef at Red Rock's Terra Rossa and left after her one year contract had ended (via Reality TV Revisited). 

Heather West didn't stay in Las Vegas

After her contract ended, Heather West Left Las Vegas and moved around, working at various restaurants in Washington state, North Carolina, and California, before she eventually returned to Long Island, where she met her future spouse. 

When she met her husband, West recalls (via Newsday), "He said, 'Oh, you're a chef? Where do you work? TGI Fridays? Applebee's?' He was joking around, and I was like, 'Yep, that's exactly where I work.' A week later, while we were on our first date, he was like, 'So when were you going to tell me everyone knows who you are? And when I say everyone, I don't mean everyone in Port Jeff, but everyone."

West is now the proud mother of two children and recently went on social media to talk about her struggle with postpartum depression. She's also active on Twitter, where she has described her self as the "Co-Founder of Non Profit East End Play Dates/Chef/wife/ mommy/ lover of all things Disney/was on that show with that guy a very long time ago."