Addison Reserve Country Club Executive Sous Chef Hannah Flora-Mihajlovic set out to prove herself—and club culinary—on the 23nd season of FOX TV’s Hell’s Kitchen, hosted by Chef Gordon Ramsay.
“It’s time that club chefs are recognized for their talents and their hard work,” she says. “If I were to win Hell’s Kitchen, it would mean that people like me are being seen.”
Flora-Mihajlovic was scouted for the show on Instagram (@chefhannahflora) by a casting agent. But it wasn’t an immediate “yes.”
“I didn’t know if I was going to go through with it or not,” she says. “It’s one of the hardest cooking competition shows. But this is an opportunity not a lot of people get. So I said, ‘Why not? Let’s do it.'”
Club + Resort Chef (C+RC): What was that conversation like with your club and with Executive Chef Peter Zoole?
Hannah Flora-Mihajlovic (HFM): I said, ‘I have this opportunity, and I think it would be something that would not only benefit myself, but also the club. And I would [get to] represent club chefs. Country clubs are kind of their own world. I wanted to prove that there is talent in the club world.
They were fully supportive of it. The general manager, assistant GM, and my chef all said, “go for it.”
C+RC: What was filming like? Was it what you expected?
HFM: It was a quick turnaround for season 23. We filmed in May at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that you don’t see on TV. How they set everything up, the amount of people—it’s like 200 people trying to pull this off, and they do it flawlessly. It’s a shame that it’s only an hour that we get to see every Thursday because there is so much that we do during the day. The fact that they’re able to condense it into an hour of television is wild.
As far as the cooking and the mental and physical strength that you have to have, I had a little bit of expectation of that, but it definitely pushes you. It pushes you to be better, to step outside your comfort zone, way more than you ever have. It’s definitely harder than it looks.
C+RC: What was it like working with Chef Ramsay?
HFM: At first, I was starstruck. This Michelin-starred chef is going to teach us and train us. Not everyone can say they’ve had Chef Ramsay as a mentor.
The fact that I was able to work with him on a daily basis was incredible. Just by him showing you something for five seconds or five minutes during service or outside of service, it really makes you grow as a chef.
C+RC: On the first episode, you made your signature dish, a chocolate-curry duck breast, which Chef Ramsey called “a bold move,” and then you scored a five out of five. Tell us about that moment.
Click to view the full recipe for Chef Hannah Flora-Mihajlovic’s signature dish, chocolate curry maple leaf duck breast.
HFM: If I’m going to do Hell’s Kitchen, I’m going to do it bold. I’m going to put it all out there. Here I am. Here’s what I can do. On paper, chocolate and duck don’t really make sense. The fact that he gave me a five on my signature dish—I was stunned. I was super excited.
C+RC: How would you describe your culinary style?
HFM: In a nutshell, my culinary style is forcing polar opposites to become best friends and creating that confusion on your palate; you don’t know what it is that’s making this dish stand out, but you’re loving every minute of it.
C+RC: Tell us a bit about your background and any significant mentors you’ve had through the years.
HFM: I was six years old when I realized I wanted to be a chef. I grew up watching the Food Network; Cat Cora on Iron Chef was always my role model. After high school, I moved to Florida [to attend] the Florida Culinary Institute, which [became] the Lincoln Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach. I got my associate degree in culinary.
When I graduated culinary school, I was in my first country club job at the Everglades Club on Palm Beach. I was trained and mentored by Chef Peter Timmins, CMC. He passed away, which is super unfortunate; he was extremely talented. He was the first French classically trained Master Chef I studied under, so I got a lot of my influence from him.
From there, I was seasonal on Martha’s Vineyard at a restaurant called Down Island; Chef Scott Cummings was my chef there. This restaurant is where I became who I am as a chef. We were super creative. We were foraging our own mushrooms, going into the ocean to harvest our own oysters. It was very farm-to-table, very creative. Our menu changed every week. It was a four- or five-course tasting menu, plus desserts, and it was a team of three. I was pushing myself to create different items with what we had available; it’s not always easy to get product on Martha’s Vineyard. If there’s a storm or anything, then the boat doesn’t come over, and you have to figure it out.
It was a lot of thinking on my feet, a lot of trying new things and being able to have the platform of the restaurant to try new flavor profiles and see that it works. It was truly amazing. It shaped me.
C+RC: What brought you back to Florida, and what keeps you in club culinary?
HFM: I was back and forth seasonally from the Everglades Club and Massachusetts at the restaurant for about five years. Being seasonal is fun, but it gets exhausting. I wanted to create a home base.
Coming back to Florida clubs always intrigued me because at clubs, you don’t necessarily have a limit on what you can and cannot do. There’s more culinary freedom and more access to some incredible product. What excites me is the fact that, for example, at Addison Reserve, you’re cooking for the same people seven days a week, 365 days a year. How can we push the limits in the club world to make our members feel like they’re dining at different restaurants or different cuisines across the globe each night?
C+RC: Have the members been supportive of of your time on the show? Are they watching each week?
HFM: The members are just as excited as I am. They come up to me in the club when they see me, and they’re in awe of what we do in Hell’s Kitchen. Their first reaction is, “I don’t know how you’re able to stand there so calmly while Gordon Ramsay’s screaming at you.” It’s shocking to them, but for us, it’s something that we brush off. You can scream and yell, but at the end of the day, this is Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen. We’re his brigade, and we want to put our best foot forward. So if he says we messed up, then we messed up, and we move on.
But the membership has been super supportive. Every Friday, when I go into work, they’ve watched the latest episode. The night of the premiere, I made the signature dish as our dinner special that night, and we sold a ton of them.
Editor’s Note: Click here for the full recipe for Chef Hannah Flora-Mihajlovic’s signature dish. Hell’s Kitchen airs Thursdays at 8pm ET on FOX and streams on Hulu.
