Hilo native Sheldon Simeon has made it to the finals of the popular Bravo TV cheftestant program “Top Chef,” with a chance to win $100,000. Hilo native Sheldon Simeon has made it to the finals of the popular Bravo TV
Hilo native Sheldon Simeon has made it to the finals of the popular Bravo TV cheftestant program “Top Chef,” with a chance to win $100,000.
The 2000 Hilo High graduate is executive chef at Star Noodle and Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop in Lahaina, Maui.
Simeon has won several challenges on the show, and his winnings include a new car.
While most of the season has been set in Seattle, with a brief cruise to Alaska, the two-part finale is in Los Angeles, where Simeon will face off against 34-year-old Brooke Williamson, co-executive chef and co-owner of Hudson House in Redondo Beach, Calif., plus the still-to-be-announced winner of the program’s online “Last Chance Kitchen,” where previously eliminated chefs battle head-to-head
for another chance at redemption, and another previously eliminated chef saved by viewer votes.
Simeon said that he expects to bring the spirit of the menehune warrior to the final showdown.
The first-part of the finale airs Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 8 p.m. on Bravo, Oceanic Time Warner Cable digital channel 560.
Simeon was selected in 2011 as a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Rising Star Chef of the Year” award and Star Noodle was a semi-finalist for “Best New Restaurant.”
Also in 2011, Maui No Ka Oi Magazine named the 30-year-old Simeon “Chef of the Year,” and he garnered a 2012 nomination from Food & Wine Magazine for “Best New Chef People’s Choice.”
